Frozen Remnants
by Chase-Geston
Summary: Chase finds himself in the World of Remnant with something cold blocking all of his memories. Hopefully RWBY will be able to help him remember his past and what made him this way.
1. Chapter 1: A Grimm Awakening

-Thoughts-

*Dream*

*"If he ever learns of what we've done then he could go rampaging, we have to get rid of him" He could hear voices but they were too faint to recognise whose. He tried to open his eyes and look around. Nothing happened.*

He opened his eyes and saw what seemed to be the abyss, seeing nothing he pondered whether or not he was asleep or not but his chain of thought was disrupted by a roar.

As quickly he could he brought himself to stand and looked around to see a white blanket disturbed by a pair of red orbs shrouded in darkness running towards him.

He dodged every swipe that the creature sent at him, almost instinctively. Getting impatient the beast threw itself at him so he couldn't dodge. He raised his fist hoping to use the creature's momentum against it. The creature stumbled backwards though seemed enraged rather than hurt as it's attacks became more precise and frequent. He was able to avoid them but not as well as he had previously though the beast was leaving itself more open after every attack so he took his chance to counter it and knock the beast back to a tree. Despite his efforts the beast never seemed to get tired or damaged. He realised he'd have to end this quickly or else he would run out of energy. Seeing the forest around him he formulated a plan. He allowed the beast to back him into a tree he dodged every attack making the tree behind him shake with the force of the beast. Wondering if he would be able to take even one hit from this thing he found out soon as he was knocked aside with one attack. His vision starting to blur as he watched the creature walk towards him. He braced for his death hoping it would be quick. But instead he heard a loud thud as the tree fell on the beast, killing it.

He got up hoping someone nearby might have heard the tree and came to check it out. He was right as he saw an array of colours appear from the forest.-People maybe they can get me to a doctor- He could only see blurs; Red, White, Black and Yellow

"Are you alright?... Is that a Beowulf?" He heard but didn't know which colour was talking Red moved closer but was stopped by White, she called to him "We can't just go up to him he looks like he just escaped prison" Black stepped up"What's your name and why are you here?" He reached into his memory to try and find his name, he saw… an orb made of ice as he reached for it he finally passed out.

*He opened his eye to a large open space. Even still he felt confined. He realised why as he saw figures behind a glass casing. This is an arena. Seeing what was supposed to be his opponent walk up he braced himself but he wasn't in control. A shivering sensation went through him as he saw a tail of ice surrounding his hands. Quickly he turned to his opponent who materialised a pair of knives made of fire.

His opponent charged him and whoever it was controlling got hit with the initial attack having to take time to adjust to the speed of his opponent, knowing he could not take many attacks he threw him back to gain more space before launching the ice on his arm and latched on to his opponent. Feeling the heat through the ice he quickly swung the man to the other side of the arena. The man stood up shakily, this time he was the one to charge him punching him in the stomach and knocking him out*

He woke up to see a blinding light above him. He winced and looked around to see where he was. The familiar scent of a sterilized environment told him he was in a hospital. He saw people in uniforms surround his bed as well as some familiar people.

"Where am I? Why are there policemen here?" He asked everyone in the room.

An uncomfortable silence settled in the room before the girl wearing a red cloak stepped forward, "You're in the hospital, we found you out in the forest with a grim so when we saw you were injured we decided to bring you back here"

The girl wearing white spoke almost immediately after red stopped as if they had planned this response "Though when we found you you were wearing what seemed to be prison attire so we called the police to find out if there were any recent prison escapes, nothing on you was found but they wanted to come just to be sure"

The nurse walked in ignoring him as she turned to the policemen and the girls that brought him here. "He might not be a prisoner but it seems as though he has been infused with dust, other than that he is fine and I'd rather he was removed from the hospital for fear of him losing control"

As the policemen prepared to move him to a prison cell until knowing what to do with him a man walked into the room. The man hadn't said anything but from the reactions of everyone in the room he could tell this man held authority and respect.

Ignoring the men in uniforms he turned to me and said"Hello my name is Professor Ozpin, what is yours?" Ozpin's commanding tone forced him to search through his mind ignoring the orb of ice until he finally found his name. "Chase, Professor"

He then turned to the girls who saved him "Team RWBY you are to help Chase remember who he is as if your report is anything to go by he could become an excellent hunter"

The policemen left shocked by his decision and Red walked to him and said "Hi, my name is Ruby, this is Weiss, Blake and Yang" Pointing to her team-mates

**A/N This is my first attempt at writing a story never mind a fan fiction so any help or criticism will be very appreciated**


	2. Chapter 2: Preparations for Defeat

"Well if he's going to be going to Beacon then he'll have to get some clothes, he can't walk around in prison clothes" Said Weiss.

"That and he'll need a weapon to be able to hold his own in a fight until he remembers what how he used to fight" Yang said.

"Ooh I'll help him make a weapon" Ruby yelled excited to see a new weapon.

"Can someone explain what Beacon is and why I am getting a weapon to the guy who has no clue where he is" Said Chase irritated that they were keeping him in the dark about what was going on.

"Ozpin decided to allow you into Beacon, a school for hunters and huntresses as long as you can catch up so we need to get you into fighting shape" Weiss explained.

"Okay, I kind of get what you're saying, so which is first?" Chase asked.

"Well it will take a while to get the stuff to make a weapon so maybe clothes should be first" Said ruby seemingly deep in thought.

"Ruby you go with Blake and get the materials for a weapon and me and Yang will go get him some clothes" Weiss said.

Chase left with Weiss and Yang, he was still in pain from being hit though he tried not to show it they went to a clothes shop near the hospital and Chase started trying on the clothes there. Since these had to be useful in combat he steered away from coats as they would hinder his movement. He settled for some light blue jeans and a blue shirt with a short, white cloak.

As they walked up to the counter Weiss offered to pay. He would've said something as he felt like he was burdening them enough but he realised he had no money.

Chase followed Weiss and Yang back to what looked like a port for airships, they talked to each other about classes but Chase stopped listening since he couldn't follow what they were saying. They got on the one for Beacon and Chase was stunned by the view from the airship."That's Beacon, that's one hell of a school"

As they landed Ruby and Blake greeted them, Ruby not able to contain herself at the idea of getting to see what type of weapon he would make. As they entered the school they went to a section of the school that seemed mostly empty except students who needed to repair their weapons.

They were welcomed by a bulky person who had short brown hair and looked friendly, Chase assumed this was the weapon smith "So you are Chase the person Ozpin told me about, I am Clay" Clay explained the process of making a weapon to Chase before giving him the materials he needed.

"I think I understand, though what is aura?" Chase asked seeing as most people seemed to forget he doesn't know much

"Oh, I'm sorry but I thought you knew as you have your aura unlocked" Clay said and went on to explain aura "Aura in a simple sense is an outward projection of yourself, when in combat most hunters and huntresses use it to protect themselves and heal minor injuries however it can also be used offensively to increase your attacks and through your semblance" Chase could've asked about semblance as well but assumed it would be explained later

He got to work trying to think of what sort of weapon he should make, remembering that clay described weapons as a conduit for aura he thought back to his fight with the Beowulf. He needed something light to counter attacks and if he can figure out how to use his aura along with dodges he didn't need a shield. A thought came to him and he began work.

Chase was in the armoury for a day and team RWBY were waiting to see what sort of weapon he was making. As soon as they had got back from their daily classes they went back to the armoury to check if he was done or lost in Beacon. They found him as he was about to leave.

"So… what sort of weapon did you make?" asked Ruby impatiently

Chase pulled out duel knives daggers which he held downwards and was able to switch them into pistol form

"It's not much but it will be will do enough until I get my memory back, speaking of which since I am infused with dust it might be useful to learn to use it, do they teach that here?" Chase asked.

"They do but you'll need to learn the basics before joining that class, I can teach you" Weiss replied

"So, what did you name them?" Ruby asked impatiently

"I didn't think of a name…. it might be better to try them out before naming them, is there anywhere to fight here?" Chase asked

"There's the arena" Yang said

-Of course there's an arena, what don't they have here- they headed to the arena and he hoped he'd be able to last a while against them


	3. Chapter 3: A Battle of Semblances

**A/N: I've decided to use the text between ** as flashbacks as well as dreams, for an explanation on why this chapter is late read until the end.**

As they walked into the arena Chase noticed a match was already going on so he watched it while waiting for Team RWBY got ready.A girl with long red hair and a spear was fighting a blonde boy in a hoodie with a sword and shield. From what he could tell the fight was already decided that the redhead would win but it was more to allow the blonde boy to practice.

After a while she finished the fight and they both walked into the preparation room. "Hey guys, what are you doing here?" asked the blonde. "Well, Chase might be joining beacon at the end of the break so we are testing how well he can fight" Weiss explained. "Well if that's the case then I'd like to fight him" The redhead said. "But Pyrrha you are the strongest here it'd be a little unfair if you were the first to fight him" Blake said. Chase, sensing a challenge, spoke up "Well I'm probably going to lose anyway, I'd prefer to lose to the strongest one".

Chase stepped into the arena looking at Pyrrha to try and determine her fighting style, he didn't get much from her fight with Jaune. A bell sounded telling him the fight has begun, Pyrrha waited watching him. He drew his daggers and ran towards her. She pulled out her spear and shield blocking his attack. With his other dagger he tried to swipe to the side of the shield but felt a tug on his hand and missed.

*Semblance is an ability that your aura creates, after activation of the aura it creates a Semblance based on who you are which skilled Hunters and Huntresses are able to use in combat, it can be used in a more advanced way by applying dust to the weapon allowing the user to alter their aura slightly. For you chosen candidates we will be applying dust to you in hopes of having a greater effect*.

The flashback caused Chase to lose focus for a moment allowing Pyrrha to get a hit onto him, his aura was able to block most of the damage and he countered by parrying the spear and jabbing her with the other dagger. Yet again he felt a tug causing him to miss. She bashed him with her shield and stabbed with her spear. Chase noticed that she wasn't aiming for him and turned to see a boy with light blue, almost white, hair and pale skin in the exact same clothing as his. He recognised it as himself though more transparent.

*It would appear that your semblance is the ability to alter what a person sees creating an illusion while you are able to see the illusions you create you will be able to distinguish whether or not they are real. This can be used to make the victim think you are elsewhere to making them think they are asleep, depending on what you need*.

The illusion of himself was quickly broke when it was stabbed but it shocked Pyrrha giving him time to land a hit. The force brought her back to her sense as Chase backed away giving him space to think of an illusion to use. He sent a copy of himself to charge Pyrrha while he moved to the side switching his daggers into pistol form and firing at Pyrrha from behind her then sent one towards her and one to circle her while he switched his weapons back to daggers and charged her, hoping she'd take the bait. He felt a slight tug on his daggers and Pyrrha turned to him slamming her shield on his face knocking his aura into the red, ending the match.

As he walked into the preparation room team RWBY greeted him with shocked looks. "What was that" Weiss asked. "Whenever I was attacking Pyrrha I felt my daggers get pulled away from her which triggered some flashbacks and I remembered my semblance, illusions" Chase explained. "Why would that trigger your memory?" Blake asked while Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha looked at her knowingly. "My semblance is polarity, when I used it to deflect his daggers his aura must've remembered how to use his semblance" Pyrrha explained, further shocking Yang, Blake and Jaune. "How come you never told us?" Jaune asked. "Well I only use it subtly to deflect attacks and if my opponent knew they would be able to counter it. So I didn't want anyone to find out" Pyrrha replied.

"Well Chase is the first person to land a hit on Pyrrha so I think he's able to fight well enough for Beacon" Yang said and everyone agreed with her. "So …. did you decide on a name for your weapons?" Ruby asked impatiently. Chase thought a moment before replying "Frozen mirage, I also remembered why I was infused with dust...".

This time it was Pyrrha's turn to be shocked. "We may have forgot to mention that before you fought him" Ruby said. "Why would someone infuse a person with dust?" Jaune said confused. Weiss tried to explain it to Jaune "Some people believe that it will allow the to use dust more efficiently if they make it a part of them though none have ever succeeded-" "Until now, the people who did this to me believed that they'd be able to evolve my basic semblance with the appliance of dust to the body as Hunters and Huntresses apply it to their weapon" Chase cut Weiss off.

"I'm not sure it seemed like that was your original semblance to me, the way you were using it appeared to be second nature to you." Pyrrha responded. "I don't think that I was using the dust inside of me, there's some sort of block in my mind which I've ignored up until now but it might be my memories of using the dust inside of me" Chase said. "Either way we should report this to Professor Ozpin" Weiss said.

They sat outside Professor Ozpin's office waiting for him to call them in. Suddenly the door opened and a man in a white suit left the office looking at Chase. "Come in" Ozpin called. Chase walked in with Pyrrha, he told them it would be weird if all of them came up to see Ozpin but Chase didn't know the school so they elected Pyrrha to go with Chase as she was ahead in her studies and the most skilled warrior in their year so she didn't need to train as much as the others. They entered and were greeted by Ozpin. "Chase, how are you finding Beacon?". "Great, sir, but that's not why we're here" Chase said. "Straight to business, why is it you're here then?" Ozpin asked. "I've been having flashbacks, the reason I was infused with dust was to enhance no … evolve my semblance to make me more combat efficient" Chase explained. "Does that mean that you have control over the dust inside you?" Ozpin asked his face showing concern for the students if he couldn't. "Well … in a way, the part of me that knows how to use the dust is blocked by the dust so it couldn't be activated even if I wanted to". Ozpin was silent as he thought about Chase's response, "Is that all?". "Well I've also been able to remember my Semblance, the ability to create illusions" Chased responded. "That is great news, you will be able to go through initiation next week" Ozpin said. Chase and Pyrrha left and when they were out of hearing distance he asked Pyrrha "So, how big is this initiation?". "Don't worry they'll just be testing how you work in a combat situation" Pyrrha told him.

Pyrrha brought Chase to team RWBY's dorm and entered the opposite room. As he entered he was greeted by four expecting faces. "Sooo how'd it go?" Ruby asked, breaking the silence. "I'll be going through initiation next week" Chase told them.

They were happy with this news as it meant he would be able to join them after the break as a student. He made his way to a sofa which he assumed would be where he slept. He was stopped by Weiss and stared at her to get her to move. "We still have to get you up to date on class work so you aren't stumped in classes." She told him. The next week was spent cramming everything about Remnant into Chase's head.

**A/N: I know this should've been out on Monday but I was stumped on which memory to give him in the fight and couldn't decide what his semblance should be, next chapter will be released on Monday and hopefully chapters will be longer from now on.**


	4. Chapter 4: One Hell of an initiation

Chase had been preparing all week and the day of his initiation had finally come. He had been asking team RWBY to give him hints but they were adamant about staying quiet on the subject. As for the theory he had a good grasp on dust and it's uses but still wasn't able to use the dust inside of him. He hadn't remembered anything about his past other than him practicing the use of his semblance.

He stood on a metallic plate while Ozpin explained that he had to go through the forest, collect a relic and make it back, it all seemed far too simple."You will not be alone in the forest as it is grimm territory and some of your soon to be fellow students are to engage you if you are spotted" -There's the catch- he thought to himself, he was glad that team RWBY and JNPR were excluded however he thought this was just because he knew how they fought as he had been at the arena nearly everyday. Ozpin drank his coffee and pulled a lever launching Chase into the air.

As he was flying in the air he quietly cursed as he would've liked some warning but he moved that thought aside quickly and reached into his pocket. Weiss had given him some dust crystals in preparation for the initiation and he pulled out and air one. Before he hit the ground he focused his aura into the crystal to let out some of it's force softening his landing, not by much. He hit the ground tumbling. Hearing footsteps near him he quickly got himself up in time to see a Beowulf charge him. He dodged it and created an illusion to get it away from him, the beast ignored it and kept heading for chase.-It must work shouldn't be able to see me- He thought back to Ruby's lessons on grimm.

*Grimm are able to find humans and faunus based on their negative emotions rather than sight*

-Looks like my semblance won't be useful against these- He rolled out of the way and stabbed the Beowulf in the back causing it to fall to the ground.-Right which way is it to these ruins- He headed in the opposite direction of where he came from hoping they put it in an obvious place. He eventually found the ruins but saw that someone was guarding it. From the mace he held he assumed it was Cardin Winchester, the school bully. While he felt he could take him head on he wanted to save his energy for more threatening enemies so he blocked himself from Cardin's view with his semblance. He looked around to see pillars holding chess pieces -Guess someone got lazy in picking relics- He noticed some where missing from the last initiation, the only ones left were the kings. He went to pick up the black one when a mace broke it."How did you-" Chase started. "What you didn't think I'd hear your footsteps on the stone?" Cardin interrupted.-Note to self illusions can be broken by loud noises- He rolled back switchin his daggers to pistols and loading ice rounds. He fired at Cardin's feet sticking him to the ground. It didn't last long as he smashed the ice with his mace and he closed the distance between him and Chase. Chase created an illusion to draw him away while he hit shot at Cardin depleting his aura to be able to land a blow. He reloaded his pistols with lightning rounds and stunned Cardin.-That should be enough to stop him coming after me- He quickly grabbed the white king and headed back to the cliff.

After he was happy that Cardin wasn't following him he sat next to a tree to check how much dust he had left. Only the fire crystals remained, he had to avoid combat. He felt the earth below him rumble and looked around to see a giant scorpion knocking down trees and heading straight for him. A creature that big and armoured would be near impossible to take down without help. Chase loaded the fire crystals and switched Frozen mirage to dagger form surrounding it with flames from the crystal. He charged the beast and slid under it as it's giant claw sweeped in front of it. From underneath it wasn't that armoured so he stabbed both daggers into it causing the beast to scream in pain. It scuttled away with Frozen mirage in it. Chase ran after it to collect his weapon but it turned around and jabbed it's tail straight for Chase.

*Not only will your semblance be affected by the dust inside you but you will also be able to form the dust into a weapon if you are ever disarmed, while the weapon your aura makes with dust is more powerful than most man-made weapons it comes with a danger. If you rely on the weapon it makes then you may lose control of yourself and temporarily take on the attributes of said dust. For example if you are using fire you will become more aggressive and dangerous. In this form you will not be able to tell friend from foe so it is best you use this as a last resort*

Suddenly he felt a chill move down his body and a tail made of ice emerged from behind him blocking the scorpions attack, he didn't like the feeling of using this and had to end it quickly. He jumped up and made a swiping motion cutting off the stinger which caused it to land in the scorpion killing it. He quickly withdrew the tail and grabbed Frozen mirage running for the cliffs ignoring everything on the way. Part of the ice globe in his mind was melting and he wanted to make it to safety before he gained any memories as this forest wasn't safe. An ursa blocked his way but he disposed of it quickly by throwing on of his daggers at it's throat and pulling it out as he ran by.

Memories started flashing in his mind by the time he had made it to the cliff but he repressed them until he was safe. When he got there Ozpin looked surprised and team RWBY was there as well, they were probably watching the whole thing. But he didn't have time to worry as he collapsed.

*He was in some sort of village and was a lot smaller. He looked around and saw another version of him, not transparent like his illusions. "Who are you?" I asked. "I am you, well at least the old you. We need to stop you from remembering me as I am afraid it will break you what you have done. That said you have triggered some memories. I will give you what memories I can as I know you want to know who you are, but the what happened after you were infused with dust must be ignored" He explained. Suddenly he had a flash of memories from his childhood but before he could see them the dream started to fade"

"He's waking up" The nurse said looking around at Ozpin."Good, leave us for a moment, I will tell the rest in a while." Ozpin replied and the nurse left. He looked around expecting a hospital but was in Ozpin's office.-Obviously they'd be afraid to put me in an actual hospital after that initiation.

"How are you feeling?" Ozpin asked. "Good, I remembered who I was, at least before being experimented on with dust" Chase said looking around seeing that the man with a white suit was in the room. "I'm General Ironwood" The man introduced himself. "As you can see he hasn't remembered the experiments so you won't be able to get anything out of him" Ozpin told the General who gave him an angry look before leaving. "What was that about?" Chase asked. "General Ironwood wanted to find out how you were made that way so that he could militarise it" Ozpin explained. "Well I'm feeling a lot better now so may I leave?" Chase asked eager to look through the memories he had gained. "What you did in the forest, can you control that dust, I must ask for the safety of my students" Ozpin asked. "Yes, it is more of a last resort reaction that will only happen when I am in danger of death it won't happen again sir, I promise" Chase replied. "Then you may leave, team RWBY is waiting for you in your dorm and we will tell you the results of your initiation tomorrow" Ozpin said.

Chase left but instead of heading to his dorm he ran straight for the roof to get peace and find out who he used to be.

"Didn't Ozpin say Chase would be on his way?" Yang asked as an hour had passed since they received the message saying he was on his way. "Maybe he got lost, we should split up and look for him" Ruby suggested and they all nodded in agreement.

Ruby had been tasked with searching the upper floors of Beacon, after having no luck she decided it would be better to use the roof as a vantage point. She saw Chase sitting and looking out into the distance. "Chase why are you up here?" Ruby asked and Chase turned around to see her.

He had just remembered his childhood and after that Ruby was the last person he wanted to see but he needed to tell her. "Your mother, Summer Rose is dead isn't she?" He asked with a soft tone. He could see her wince at the name but she solemnly nodded. "When I was a young kid my village was attack by grimm. I wasn't even awake when it happened and since my house was on the border my parents died before we could evacuate. I only woke up when my door got busted open by a Beowulf" He began. "Your mother came in and killed it saving me, the rest of her team evacuating the village while she looked for any survivors and took down the grimm as they approached. We were heading back when a Nevermore attacked with a pack of Ursas. She held them off and told me to run and get help. By the time I got back with Qrow we saw her trapped by the Nevermore's feathers and the Ursas just…." He stopped as he felt tears coming to his eyes, "I'm so sorry I didn't get help quick enough. It's my fault that she's dead"

Ruby was silent for a moment, eventually she said "So you're the one she died saving, Uncle Qrow told me about you whenever I was told she died…. I was so angry at you for getting my mother killed" She stopped and looked at Chase "But to know that she wasn't just killed and was able to save someone made me proud, I wanted to meet the person my mum saved but they couldn't find you anywhere" She pulled out her scroll and became her normal self again "Come on everyone's been wondering where you are, we should head back to the dorm"

The next day he stood in front of the rest of the first year students as Ozpin announced the results of his initiation. "We have had a new student who will be joining you next term. As we have not had an odd amount of students for quite some time we had to find out which team to put him on as one man doesn't make a team." Ozpin explained "But as if he joined a team it would give them the unfair advantage of an extra team member, we therefore decided to have him be a linking member so that he would work for two teams and make those two teams better at working together. Chase as you picked the White King you shall join both team RWBY and JNPR as for any team games points you gain will go to both teams." He explained


	5. Chapter 5:The Ones Pulling the Strings

Chase had been collecting books on dust and aura to try and find out any effects the experimentation could've had on him that he hadn't noticed yet. Once he found all he could he sat down next to team JNPR as team RWBY was playing a board game. He had to plug earphones into his scroll and listen to music as he couldn't focus over the noise they were making.

From what was on the book nothing like this was ever even theorised so it seemed that the library wasn't a good place to find information. He plugged out the earphones and noticed everyone was silent. He looked around to see a blonde monkey faunus talking to team RWBY. "I never took you as the board game playing type" He said. "Blake put her cards down and left said "I think I'm done playing". The monkey faunus watched her leave then said "Something wrong with Blake" to which everyone shrugged. "I'll go see if she's ok" Chase suggested. "We'll join you after we finish this game" Ruby said.

Chase walked into team RWBY's dorm room and saw Blake laying on her bed looking thoughtfully. "What's the matter" He said as he took a seat on Weiss' seat. "It happened a while before you got here.." she started and retold the night that she found Torchwick working with the White Fang. "I was wondering how you got your bow to twitch" Chase said trying to lighten the mood. "We forgot to tell you I was a faunus?" She asked. The rest of team RWBY walked in as Chase asked Blake "So you're worried about what their next move is going to be?" Hearing this Weiss looked at Blake "Even if we knew their next move we aren't ready yet, we are just students". Blake responded "Well they aren't just going to wait until we're ready, if we don't do anything who will?" "She's got a point" Chase said earning a cold glare from Weiss. "So all in favour of becoming the youngest Huntresses and Hunter to take down a corrupt organisation conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale say I" Ruby said faster than should be possible. "Yes, I love it when you're feisty" Yang said pointing at Blake. "Well I suppose it could be fun" Weiss said. "Sure, maybe I can get some clues to my past" Chase said. He could see Ruby turn and murmur something but he couldn't make out what.

The next day in team RWBY's dorm they formed a plan Weiss and Ruby were to check the Schnee records for any break-ins, Yang was going to talk to her friend that knew everything that went on in Vale -Yeah, because that doesn't sound shady at all- and Blake was to go to a White Fang meeting. Which just left him, before they got to it a certain faunus was hanging outside the window. "Sorry Sun, we don't to get friends involved if we don't have to" Ruby explained. "Pfft that's dumb, you should always get friends involved that's why I brought Neptune" Sun retorted to which everyone looked out the window seeing Neptune who didn't look comfortable with how high up he was.

After Sun and Neptune got in the room it was decided Neptune would go with Yang and Sun with Blake, at which point they turned to Chase trying to figure out what he could do, "I could go with Blake and Sun, with my illusions I could enter through the back as one of the White Fang Members" He suggested and they all nodded.

Blake had shown Chase the Warehouse before her and Sun went to join the line of recruits. Seeing as most of the higher up members were going into the back he followed removing him from their sight, he decided that if he looked like them he could be found out if he didn't know what was going on. Chase leaned against the wall so he couldn't make any noise and break his illusion. He saw someone who, by Blake's description he identified as Torchwick, he was accompanied by a girl with brown and pink hair, she looked familiar.

*"With my illusions and your semblance we could escape from here, we're the two capable of changing what people see so they wouldn't even notice" Chase said. "You only want me to come because I can see through your illusions" Neo replied. Chase wanted to tell her how he felt but found the timing inappropriate and decided to say nothing. "Don't worry I won't tell them about your escape just go" Neo told him*

How had he forgot his old sparring partner, the only friend he had. He was overjoyed to see that she was still alive but it was quickly replaced with fear.-She knows that I'm here, I was never able to fool her- She stopped at the door to a stage and waited for everyone to leave the room. "So you were able to make it" She said without looking around to see him. "Yeah, but it didn't come for free" he said removing the illusion as it was pointless now. She looked around worried "What did they do to you?" She asked. "Nothing too bad, well apart from taking my memories and leaving me to be killed by some grimm" Chase replied. "They told me you had died, but it seems you didn't go down without a fight" Neo told him. "That's good to hear, what happened after I left?" Chase asked. Neo was silent for a moment before speaking "They killed Cyril, whatever you did to him when they confronted you put him in a vegetative state and since he couldn't be useful to them anymore..." Chase felt guilty for causing someone's death but couldn't remember who he was and put it aside. "They got more strict, from now on we can't disobey their orders, to make sure no one else escaped" She continued.

Suddenly he heard something coming from an earpiece she was wearing and she started attacking him. He pulled out Frozen Mirage hoping to catch her off guard with his weapons. She pulled the blade out of her umbrella and began attacking Chase. All he could do was block as she moved faster than he could counter. He could hear shouting from the next room.-Shit they know I'm here- But just as soon the lights went out and he heard Torchwick shout "Don't let them get away". Even without the lights Chase knew Neo's vision was like that of a faunus which put him at a disadvantage. He put a dust crystal into each dagger hoping to get some light, luckily the one he picked was fire and his blades lit up the room. He was still able to block but not as well. Neo was able to stab him in his side causing him to withdraw one dagger to stop the bleeding and use his aura to heal it. Suddenly his scroll lit up and he heard Blake and Sun's voices call for help. "A little busy here" He replied trying to avoid Neo.

Another noise came from her earpiece and she retreated but was replaced by White Fang members. Chase quickly made an illusion temporarily taking away their night vision as he retreated. He pulled out his scroll and warned them "YOu guys have reinforcements coming your way, I'll get there as quickly as I can" Quickly he opened an app on his scroll telling him where his team was. He stopped before he got there pulling out an ice crystal to close the stab wound from Neo.

As he got down he saw Yang swing around and punch the giant mech in the face causing it to crumble and launch the pilot out. Torchwick stood up looking around but Neo stood in front of him blocking the way. Chase could see Yang run up but told her "There's no point, they're not there anymore" team RWBY looked at him confused but as they turned around to look at Torchwick they vanished into pieces.

They turned to him and looked blankly. "Well why else would it take me so long to get here" he stated. They headed back to Beacon but Chase could already see that Blake wasn't going to stop so easily, he made a mental note to keep an eye out just in case. "What? Where's Sun and Neptune?" Ruby asked. "They disappeared when we knocked the mech down here" Blake said. "I'm sure they're fine, as far as we know they made sure no one else came after you" Chase said not knowing how wrong he was.

When they got back to the team's dorm they shared any information they had gained. Ruby shook her head showing that she didn't get anything on the White Fang. "Well, it seems that shipments of dust from the Schnee company have been occurring all over the four kingdoms, but recently more have been happening around here, whatever they're planning it's going down here" Weiss stated. "They have those Paladins from Ironwood, so either they are backed by the army or they have someone high up helping them" Blake said. Yang shrugged as she wasn't able to get anything from her 'friend'. "The White Fang have the support of the group who experimented on me, the person you saw tonight who helped Torchwick get away was… a friend of mine from when I was with them." He stopped remembering how she had attacked him so mercilessly and then continued "After my escape they made it so that no one could disobey orders"

After everyone else had went to sleep Chase stayed up on his scroll planning training sessions and trying to get any extra lessons on dust he could. If he was going up against the people who experimented on him he wanted to be prepared.


	6. Chapter 6: The First Move

With Weiss's help as the heiress of a dust company Chase had learned to shape Dust as he released it from the crystal, though he couldn't keep control as he did in the forest. Weiss had told him such a thing was impossible because dust is volatile so he had spent the past week trying to stabilize a dust crystal. While he was having no luck his dust teacher told him that if was able to he would add it to his grade which gave him even more incentive. Beep beep. He looked down at the message on his scroll.

Ren and Blake are at it again in the arena. We need you to come down before they kill each other.

-Nora

While Chase was thankful to Professor Ozpin for bringing him to Beacon and letting him meet team RWBY and JNPR he cursed the man for giving him the responsibility of keeping the two teams from killing each other…..-Wait what!- he slapped himself and looked through the message again.- Ren and Blake are usually stopping a fight, and Nora asking me to stop it rather than joining in, shit- He put away his scroll and ran to the arena to find what he had feared.

"So nice of you to join us" he turned his attention towards a masked woman with black hair who he instantly recognised as Cinder Fall, she had adapted to the dust infused with her the best. He cursed silently, he should've stopped to get his weapons first. However he needed to remain calm, she loved it when her victim was afraid, she used to prolong matches in the arena simply to play with her opponent. As he looked behind her he saw the rest of the experiments. Each looking maliciously at Chase. He knew he wouldn't win in a direct fight, but he may be able to use their anger. He stepped forward and was about to speak when he saw a few of them back away slightly. He grinned remembering what Neo said-They are afraid of me, if only I knew what I did-

"It seems like you're the only one willing to fight me Cinder" He said walking slowly but confidently towards them. "Well I was hoping you'd come willingly and I wouldn't have to embarrass you in front of everyone" She said sarcastically. She knew he lost his memory, but if he could make it look like he hadn't… He slipped a hand into his pocket knocking a crystal of ice dust to the ground -Now's as good a time to test it as any- he created illusions of ice spikes coming from the ground. While most of them dodged the illusions Cinder walked into them "It's just a hollow threat, he doesn't know how to do much else" she said turning to her allies. As soon as she said that one Chase placed a foot over the crystal he dropped focusing enough aura into it to activate it.

Still making illusions he used the dust to create a spike where one of his illusions was causing one of them to scream. "I wouldn't be so sure of them being hollow threats" Chase said, glad that Neo had been excluded from this attempted capture otherwise his plan would've failed. CInder was visibly irritated and used some of the dust on her clothes to create an outburst of flames, burning all the ice Chase had. He was running out of ideas, he knew he couldn't win but if he could stall for long enough someone might come.

"Hows about we make it a fair fight" said a man walking towards him from behind everyone. From what vague memories he had he recognised the voice as one of the lead scientists.-Why risk coming out here just to kill me… unless he needs to be in range for the rest to do what he says, I just need to get someone out of range- "Finally someone realises that you need more people" Chase said sarcastically. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, to me it seemed like you were trying to prevent the inevitable" He said producing something from behind him. "You remember this, don't you" Chase looked closely and saw a piece of clothing, his combat suit. It was made with black leather and looked similar to what Cinder used. It was Woven with dust at certain points giving him a secondary source and was much more practical in battle than crystals. However the difference between his and Cinder's was that he had woven sockets in places around it for hidden weapons and areas on the arms and legs which acted as a blade allowing for close-quarters combat without a weapon.

The scientist handed him the combat suit and four of the experiments led him into the prep room where he changed into the suit, while in there he tested his theory by attempting to leave forcing on of them to move farther from the scientist. For a moment his eyes changed from cold to scared -It's hard to think what they've been put through because I left, maybe it would've been better to try and get everyone out, or at least take more with me-. His friend quickly brought him aside, looking at him anxiously while another pushed Chase towards the exit.-They're afraid I'll do what I did to Cyril- He walked out only to be greeted with Cinder, Neo and someone else that he didn't recognise-So she wasn't excluded-.

"I am a fair man" The scientist said revealing him and the rest watching from the crowd seats "If you can beat these three I will let you go free without bothering you. But if you lose then you come with me". -He still has other people who could take me out if I become tired from the fight, I need to end it fast, I need to deal with Neo first, then I can use illusions to help against the rest-

He ran for Cinder creating an illusion towards the end then switching to attack Neo, while it dissipated in moments it bought him enough time to focus on Neo. He rapidly attacked not letting her take out her umbrella. He couldn't hit her because of her insane ability to dodge and felt something hit him with a devastating force, knocking him to the other side of the arena. He rolled to the side immediately to dodge Cinder's follow up attack putting him on the defensive. He dodged Cinder while trying to figure out what hit him. Beside Neo was the other person who he was meant to fight, he was covered in a sort of rock armour. -If that's what I'm up against he could beat me alone. I don't think I'll be able to even scratch his armour- Chase took out some throwing knives and flung them at Cinder causing her to back up slightly to dodge them. It didn't buy him much time as the rock charged him head first. Chase used some dust to make a wall of ice but it only slowed him down. Chase rolled out of the way but still got grabbed. Pain shot through him as he was slammed into the wall, with the armour still holding on to his neck.

Chase reached into another pocket to pull out some small explosives, he threw them and then braced. It caused the rock to retreat slightly but barely caused a dent in the armour. He brought himself up to see that all three were prepared to attack him. -Desperate times- Reluctantly he accessed the dust within him and allowed it to take over. As he felt a shivering sensation he started remembering his fights in the arena, they had forced them to learn how to use dust to create weapons. As predicted everyone changed, Cinder became aggressive and started enjoying the matches while Chase, he became psychotic, he stopped caring about what he was doing to his opponent and enjoyed their screams of pain. He started acting cold to everyone and forgot his dreams of becoming a hunter. He just wanted to kill people, as slowly and painfully as possible.

His serious expression was gone, what replaced it would give most people nightmares. He was smiling, a wide, toothy and completely insane smile bordering on demonic. Then it was gone, he gave his three victims a mock scared face. "Three against one, that seems a little unfair" Then his face became cold and calculating "How about I make it fair, first hit for free" He leant his face out waiting for a punch. The rock took this opportunity to punch him but his fist went straight through, it was just an illusion. Neo watched in surprise but then noticed something cold behind her. "What's the matter, performance issues?" She turned around to see that insane grin and was able to parry his tail just on time, but her umbrella went right through it, she couldn't tell illusion from reality. That is until she felt something hit her from behind, she was launched to the other side of the arena, knocking her out.

He jerked his arm grabbing the knife as it fell out of a pocket on his arm and blocked Cinder's attack with it. He then grabbed her arm and threw her. While in mid-air she created a bow shooting an explosive tip arrow and landed on her feet. Chase blocked the arrow with his tail but then something grabbed onto it, smashing it.

The pain was too much and Chase began to lose consciousness. he pulled out a throwing knife with an explosive tip and threw it at the boulder-like hand causing him to stagger back. He focussed his aura to try and heal himself faster so he could continue. Using the dust in him was no longer an option but he had done enough to be able to do without. While he couldn't do much to the rock he was able to dodge him easily and looked for a soft spot. He threw a few explosive tipped daggers and which caused his opponent's right arm stopped moving, it just swung limply. He ran in ignoring the arm he took out and took out an energy crystal to try and break the armour by using it like a shotgun. His opponent tilted to the left and the limp arm smashed into Chase who took the full force of the attack without any aura to block it with. Finally he was taken down.

He was lifted and brought to a Bullhead which took off for what he assumed was their base of operations. Just before Beacon was out of sight Chase could see people finally entering the arena -Bit Late for helping me but just on time to watch me leave- He didn't have the energy to even attempt a jump and live, he was doing all he could just to stay awake, making sure he knew his way back, if he ever escaped.

From what he could tell they had left Vale and were in one of the ruined cities that had scattered Remnant. -What better a place to set up your evil organisation than somewhere no one is likely to go-. To make escape even more unlikely they had went deep below the city to what he assumed was an old subway station. Just like above ruined buildings were everywhere, only down here he could see various White Fang members loading up a train. As soon as they landed Chase was dragged towards where the labs were set up. He was strapped to a chair in an isolated room and just left.

While he was in no state to leave right now he spent his time alone plotting how he could. He knew he had a fire dust crystal, 3 throwing knives and a couple flashbangs left in his pockets. If he could regain his aura getting out of the chair would be easy, but where to go from there. His train of thought was interrupted by a man in a lab coat walking into the room. "You lost quite a bit of dust in the fight, while some of us are hesitant about giving you more it will make you more useful for us" The man walked towards Chase and jabbed something sharp into his arm, looking down he saw a syringe filled with a light blue solution.

I'm gonna kill that over-sized lump of shit when I see him again. Chase heard another voice in his head, it must be the psychotic side of him. -If you want another shot at him we're gonna need to get out of here- Pfft, escaping is easy, been there done that, what I want is revenge, you're too weak to ever stand up to these guys. -Maybe to you but, this is my body, here you are the weak one- Don't make me laugh, taking control is easy, tell me, how many fights have you won without my help?. He had a point. -Even so, it'll take more than just you to get out of here, you have no self control. If you didn't lose control in taking down Cinder you would've noticed the guy stomping behind us- Pfft, sorry for enjoying myself. But for now we need to remember the night we left. Our evolved semblance should get us out easily. Chase talked with himself for hours trying to find some way to remember that night, but nothing worked.

A few days of isolation later someone finally came to him. "I'm guessing you've already seen our new invention" The man said pointing towards and earplug, the same one he saw on most of his fellow experiments. "The unfortunate side-effect is that the candidate using it doesn't fight as efficiently, we only use it in cases where we have no alternative. I've been given two weeks to make you obedient or else this goes in" Chase looked at the man in shock. No no no, we are not giving in that easily. -I never planned on it, we just have to be gone in two weeks- I'm starting to like the way you think, we should have enough aura to get out within a week.

A/N: This chapter is up a bit late as I was busy with tests yesterday and didn't get to finish off this chapter


	7. Chapter 7: The Man on the Inside

On the first day of the two weeks no one entered or even walked near his room. Chase had suspected that they never thought they'd actually get this far and were planning how to make him obedient. After a while he began to wonder if this was how they'd do it. Wait until he was so bored he would join just to do something. He had been able to keep himself entertained by planning his escape, since they were in a city and this was just one outpost he thought it easy to hide if they noticed his escape.

After which they had tried to impress him with what they had around in hope that he would join them to become better and stronger. While he found his 'tour' boring it had allowed him to map the area around his cell to know the quickest and best exits. It had also shown him where they had stored their dust so he could restock.

Seeing as neither of the first two options had worked they spent the rest of the week torturing him in the hopes of making him fear him. They always made it so that it was just enough not to leave a mark and that it could be healed by his aura, but painful enough that he'd become obedient. His resolve stayed firm, staying here just wasn't an option.

He had been waiting for the next round of torture whenever a thought occured. -What if we give them what they want and join- All it took was a couple days, trust me if you join them it will be worse than this -But we still don't have enough aura to escape and at this rate they will be implanting that earbud into by the time we do have enough- If you join them any chance of going back to that life is gone, you become the enemy -Not if I can become a spy, I'd rather it was me in control out there rather than someone else, I can get them information- You'd need to get their trust for them to tell you anything -That's why I waited until now to suggest it, they'll think they've broken me- He was about to counter but heard footsteps coming from outside.

He expected one of the scientist or the higher ups of the White Fang had come for his daily beating but that's not who it was. As soon as he recognised who it was he set up an illusion to make him look broken."W-who is it?" he whimpered as the Cinder walked into the cell. "Well, that didn't take very long, and here's me thinking I'd get the joy of hearing you scream" Cinder walked around his chair, stopping when she was behind him. "So, are you willing to join us now" He nodded and hoped it was enough to convince her.

She melted the metal binding him to the chair while he used what little aura he had to make it fall to the ground without burning him. As she left the room he followed her lead. The walk to what he suspected was the main office was relatively quiet as neither of them spoke, the only noises came from outside.

As they walked in he saw a tall, bald man who he knew was the leader. The bald man smiled as he saw Chase enter his office. "So, he returns, and just in time. I was beginning to think you wanted the earplug". He dismissed Cinder and pressed a button on his desk muttering something into the microphone. He then turned his attention back to Chase and smiled, "After you've been briefed we'll stock you up on dust and give you back your suit". "Briefed" Chase replied, shocked that they had a mission for him already. Just as the man was about to explain Neo entered the room. "Ah, now the both of you are here I can give your mission. As of tomorrow all of the preparations will be done for our plan. Next week you two are to escort the train and in the distraction it causes meet up with Cinder and sneak into Vale. Neo, I want to know where the military will be and what they plan to do. As for you Chase, Ozpin is up to something and I want to know what, you are not to rejoin Beacon and if you attempt to go against us we will bring you back" He glared at Chase to emphasise his point. "In the mean time Neo I want you and Chase to stock up on supplies and to give Chase back his weapon."

Chase and Neo left the room and she led him towards where they stored the stolen dust where he collected enough crystals to last him the duration of the trip. If he needed anymore Neo told him to find Torchwick as he was to continue stealing dust from the Schnee Dust Company. After she was done they headed towards a part of the building which Chase wasn't shown during his 'tour' but he wasn't focusing on that. Neo hadn't said a word to him other than what to do if he ended up in a troublesome situation.

"Still trying to figure out why you couldn't see through my illusions" he guessed hoping that's why she wasn't talking to him. "It's not just that, you turned into someone completely different in the arena. What are you?" Chase sighed before replying "You were lucky enough to be able to evolve your semblance without dust, those of us that had to… it affected us. What you fought was the result of dust experimentation." She turned to him with a shocked and horrified expression. Chase simply shrugged. "Yours didn't change though, no matter what they tried your semblance wasn't affected." She said looking at each of the doors. Chase had noticed that they were named. -They still kept my room, that's… unsettling- "Not until the night I escaped, when I was put in a real situation and not just some simulation" They stopped as they reached a door with his name on it. "If you want to go to get some fighting practice there's a makeshift arena at the end of the hall, the armory is the last room to the right" Neo said before leaving

Chase walked into his room eager to see what his life here was like. It was a bare room with only the essentials. -Good to know they spend so much on keeping us happy- They don't need happy, they need efficient, also you were sloppy when fighting with those shitty excuses for knives, you need a better weapon. This time I'm making it. -It can wait until we get back from Vale, we only have a week which isn't long enough to get used to a weapon, for now the suite will do- He searched through a drawer to find anything he could to spark his memory of the night he escaped and found a book with a note on it.

If you are reading this then I was right about my escape plan. It seems paranoid but they know I'm going to attempt it, the amount of White Fang members around my room have decreased which makes me think that they want me to leave. The one thing I have been able to keep from them is the fact that I have evolved my semblance. It is the only reason I am planning my escape even with the knowledge that they will be waiting, I suspect they will make me forget about my semblance when they find out. If that happens I have written this book on the instructions of my knowledge of semblance both basic and advanced ones. My clue is this - When fighting against mirrors sight is the enemy. Good Luck

-Chase Gestson

He looked through the book but all of the pages were blank. -Either they found the book and replaced it or this is meant to mean something else- He placed it in one of his pockets and went to the arena to practice fighting.

As he entered the armory and checked the pockets of his suit making sure he had enough of each. He then picked up one of the practice swords -Best test how good I am with each of these weapons before we make a new weapon.- He then walked into the arena to see who he was going to have to fight, to his horror and joy the person standing in the arena was the person he decided to dub 'The Boulder'. "Come for another beating?" He shouted. Chase simply grinned in return and waited for him to make the first move.

After he saw him surround himself in rock armour he placed an illusion where he was standing and began to circle the boulder. He looked down at the sword and selected the fire setting on the dust chamber to fire. As the boulder charged at his illusion Chase ran to his side throwing three explosive tipped knives at his side causing him to stagger, whenever the boulder brought up his arm to block an attack Chase slashed at it with the sword parrying the arm and exposing his underarm which had a weaker armour to allow movement. Quickly Chase rubbed some of the ice dust on his suit and sent it into the weaker section of the arm to be frozen later. As he saw the man get up he infused some dust into his aura to block the oncoming attack. It still launched him but not as far allowing him to quickly recover.

He switched the dust chamber to energy and charged the boulder. As the boulder punched Chase he parried it with his sword and used more dust from his suit to freeze up the armour. The boulder, oblivious to what was happening, took his chance to disarm Chase and grab him by the throat, forcing him against the wall.

"Let me get one thing straight, you may have come back to us but you caused one of us to die, I will kill you if you try to again" He said spitting at Chase. Chase focused his aura into his right hand then slipped a force crystal into the hand. He turned to smile at the boulder "I'm afraid you don't have the power to stop me" Chase punched the arm activating the force crystal the moment before impact, shattering the armour around his arm. He then used the dust he had placed in his chest and underarm and froze the boulders armour making it brittle. He then walked towards him and looked at his face before creating ice spikes to shatter the rest of the armour.


	8. Chapter 8: The Illusion Shatters

Chase had been staring at the book for at least an hour trying to decipher why it was blank, at first he thought it wasn't and checked the pages under the light but he still couldn't see any traces of writing. _Hey, we need to get materials from the armory. _The sound of the voice in his head snapped his attention away from the book -Why do we need materials? I already stocked up on dust for the mission, what else do we need?- _I've finished designing our new weapon but I can't just materialise it_ -Fine, we'll go now, I need a break from this damn book- Just as he put the book in his pocket someone knocked at the door.

Neo walked in anyway and turned to him "We have to leave, now".

"But the mission isn't for another couple of days"

"But some hunters got in and we need to start the train now"

He got up off the bed and lifted the grimm mask he had prepared for the mission so no one would notice him. -What materials do you need for this weapon?- _Bone armour from a deathstalker and some gun parts_ -We can get the gun parts in Vale but the bone armour will be hard to find-

"Alright, lets go"

The two left and saw that Torchwick had already started the train, they both broke into a sprint to jump onto it before it entered the tunnels. As he was running Chase looked to see the hunters who had found them -Crap, if they see me here then I'll have to fight them- _Then you'll get to show your loyalty to these bastards_ -I'll have to fight with only my suit so they don't notice me-

Once they got on the train they ran to the front to find Torchwick

"You couldn't have dealt with them without using the train?"

"I could've but if they got a message out then everyone would know about it, best get them off guard now"

"Fine… me and Chase will stall them so they can't get up here"

They heard one of the grunts shouting from outside "They're on the train!"

Chase and Neo quickly ran out the door, Neo stopped Chase before he moved on to the next cart "You might want to be ready for whenever the train crashes into the city" Chase looked at her confused and she just pointed out the window, when he looked out he saw the carts at the back exploding and grimm following the train

"That would've been nice to know earlier"

"You've got to get going, they'll be here soon"

Chase placed the mask over his face and moved on to the next cart as he saw Yang, Weiss and Blake drop down from the roof. -They won't risk a three on one, they have time against them- _But are you able to fight any of them without using your tail_ -I can always use the dust in other ways- He walked towards the trio slowly and he saw Yang nod to the others as they ran ahead. He created an illusion of himself and quickly jumped to the ceiling grabbing on to the bars as Yang shot at the illusion breaking it. She looked around to find him as Chase slipped out one of his explosive tipped knives and threw it at her feet causing her to stagger. He quickly jumped down as she got up he span around using his foot to parry her gauntlets, following up with a punch. Yang's hair started glowing and her pupils went red -Shit I forgot about the blades- Chase went on the defensive as Yang threw out a barrage of punches, he grabbed one of her arms and focused some dust into the aura around his head and headbutted her causing her to fall to the ground.

He looked down and felt something….. psychotic take over -_Such an easy kill, go on, I know you want to_\- He felt a disturbing shiver as his tail released and aimed at Yang. Then he saw something in the corner of his mind and immediately turned to see a dark haired figure wearing red armour appeared. He immediately turned his tail to block her attacks. She sheathed her katana and the dust chamber swirled as she released it again. Chase went to attack but her sword moved so fast that he had to block, the blade was able to slice off a part of his tail. He created an illusion to dodge her attacks while he escaped to the cart where Neo was. She was fighting with Weiss in what seemed like a stalemate, until Neo used her semblance and caught Weiss off guard, putting her on the defensive.

"We know it was you who captured him, where is he?"

Neo simply replied with a grin as she jabbed at Weiss opening the umbrella to knock her over the boxes behind her. He then looked at Neo and saw a maniacal grin, the same one he had when he defeated Yang. Chase ran over and used his tail to parry Neo before she could stab Weiss. He picked up Weiss and threw her into the next cart where he hoped Blake was having some luck with her fight.

He turned to Neo to see if she was alright, she just looked dazed.

"What happened?"

"I'll explain later the train is about to crash"

After he said that her face turned into a panic as Chase pulled out some dust trying to think about how to lessen the impact when Neo interrupted "We need to be able to fight as soon as the train crashes" He quickly pulled out some ice crystals and covered themselves making sure the ice could slide.

After the train crashed Chase quickly got out of the train and used his semblance so that no one could see him as he ran into the alley. He was heading to his hiding spot when he saw a group of civilians being chased by a Deathstalker. -God dammit, we've got to help them- _Good, remember to rip off some of his armour_. Without another seconds thought he ran to the deathstalker jumping just as it swung its claw at Chase. He slipped out a force crystal and launched himself at the tail to chop it off. Looking down he extended his tail to pierce the armour and rip off a chunk causing the Deathstalker to scream in pain. He landed and lifted the chunk as he finished off the deathstalker by stabbing the unarmoured area, smiling at his work. He was snapped back to reality when he noticed Pyrrha standing in front of the Deathstalker. -SHIT she probably recognised me-

"Chase, we thought you were captured" _She might've noticed you_

-Either explain it to her and hope she says nothing or run and she tells everyone- "I was, after a long fight, thanks for the help by the way, it was either work with them for now as me or get mindplugged and have to work with them forever"

"But now you're here you can come back to Beacon"

"Not exactly, here on a mission and if I escape they'll just come back and re-capture me, I could use your help though"

She stared at him then crossed her arms "I'm not helping them"

"It's more to help me escape, while I haven't given up on it I need to make sure they can't get me again"

She uncrossed her arms and looked more willing to help "What do you need?"

"Gun parts, access to the workshop and for you to act as if you can't see me if I try to contact you, also no one else can know"

She nodded "I can get you access to the workshop in a few days, check at around noon, other than that is there anything else?"

Chase thought for a moment, this would be the last time for a while he would be able to talk to someone inside Beacon "How do you fight a mirror?"

She looked at him confused "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's a serious question, the me before I lost my memories write it for me to find out, but I can't figure it out"

"Wouldn't you just shatter it?"

_Oh for dusts sake you never thought that he put an illusion on the book so that it looked blank _-No, how did I not think of that- "I've got to go, thanks for the help" He started running towards his hiding place and pulled out his book. -To dispel one of my illusions something needs to happen that shouldn't happen within the illusion, got any ideas on how a blank page would react differently to one with writing?- _There would be indents on the page from the writing_. Chase began to feel the pages and sure enough the writing came back to the book. -Looks like my escape is coming sooner than I thought-


	9. Chapter 9: The General's Secret

**A/N If you don't know already the creator of RWBY, Monty Oum has passed away. However as he worked hard to put together RWBY and has inspired so many people, myself included I am still going to work hard at this and hopefully start to update this fic more frequently**

'In theory a person or faunus could have as many semblances as they want, as far as most people know a semblance is a tangible form of their aura and thus reflects who they are. These so scientists believed that if they could add dust to someone's aura it would give that person a better version of their semblance as adding dust into a weapon has a similar effect. Thus they began testing, they needed subjects who weren't used to using their aura so that the dust would have an effect while they learnt, the obvious choice was children. Their tests failed to evolve our semblance however the dust inside of us took form in our aura, the mixture of dust and aura created a new personality within the subjects head, one that reflected the traits of the dust used. From what I have experienced this new personality was capable of generating it's own aura… it's own semblance. They took this as a success, their own mercenaries with two semblances and enough dust infused to become superweapons. My case, however seems more advanced than the others, while they are just gaining the effects of the two semblances they aren't able to efficiently use both, which makes sense as you can't use a semblance that doesn't suit you. In my case the two personalities began merging. The effects of this are that I am able to use both semblances together as if they were a single one. The side effects include a need to kill, it is difficult to control my own body at times but I have an increased amount of aura to use. I am telling you this hoping that you have found people who will be able to help you control what I've become. Since getting this book in the first place must've been difficult I will tell you how to remove the block to the memories on both of your semblances as I don't know which one you'll discover. The block is just an illusion so you can walk through it'

Chase went into his mind and looked at the object that had been stopping him from getting to his memories, as he took as step forward it dissipated and was bombarded by his memories.

*After Summer Rose's death he made his way into Vacuo to find someone to train him to fight so he could become a hunter, while he was in the desert he found the house of a retired hunter. The man had took him in while Chase was in the desert. His house wasn't much as it only had a kitchen, sitting area and a bedroom with a toilet in a small room attached to the bedroom. The man was tall and had short, black and messy hair. Chase had noticed the face the man had worn, he had lost something to the grimm as well. After Chase told the man what had happened to him the man told him he was called Tony and that he would teach Chase basic fighting abilities as well as how to use his aura, but he had no weapons to train Chase with.

"Here" Tony handed Chase a brown and worn out cloak as well as a thin grey cloth, "If we're gonna teach you in the desert you need some protection from the sand. They walked outside and Tony stood opposite of Chase.

"In stories they will usually tell you that everything slows down in a fight, it does the exact opposite. Adrenaline runs through your body and everything gets faster. The most important lesson is to be able to calm yourself down in a fight and keep your head clear and your eyes open" He then pulled out a golden crystal from his pocket.

"Since I believe the best way to teach anyone is to start off difficult and then bring you up more I am going to use this crystal to speed up my movement, if you can knock me down then you are worth teaching"

Chase dragged his foot back and saw the crystal in his hand begin to glow as he disappeared, Chase felt a draft behind him and ducked narrowly avoiding Tony's punch but staggered back after the other one hit his side. Chase was breathing heavily the punch had hurt quite a bit and he knew that Tony wasn't trying yet.

"What did I tell you, speeds up doesn't it?"

Chase closed his eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm his nerves when he felt something hit his face, sending him flying. He pushed himself up and saw Tony crouch in front of him.

"Down so easily, I thought you wanted to be a hunter"

Chase's arms crumbled below him, he could hear Tony walking away to his house -Defeated in less than a minute, it's pathetic- Then he remembered the image of Summer being killed by the grimm and felt a spark of anger flow through him and when he opened his eyes he saw his body covered in a light blue, it slowly healed up the damage Tony had dealt to him.

Chase ran up behind Tony and clenched his fist ready for a punch, as he had expected he hit nothing and expecting what was to come Chase backflipped avoiding both punches and then elbowed behind him. He felt something grab on to his elbow and spin him back down into the sand. Chase wasted no time and calmed himself -While he can move fast with that crystal if I hit him while he's moving- Chase charged at Tony but before he got to him he sent a roundhouse kick to his left which stopped Tony and caused him to stumble down

"Looks like you activated your aura, most people need to be babysitted through it, I'll teach you the basics" Chase learnt how to use his aura to block an attack and reinforce his hits as well as how to activate dust, though he couldn't figure out how to control it 100% of the time.

He left Tony and exited the desert went in the direction of Vacuo, while he was on his way he could hear something in the distance. As he headed in the direction of the noise he recognised the growling of grimm. It was a village just on the outskirt, sure hunters could get there but they could be a while. Chase quickly ran into the village pulling out the time dust crystal Tony gave him and activated it. He took a deep breath and time slowed around him, looking around he saw a Beowulf near a group of children. Without thinking he ran in pushing the children away while throwing a fire crystal in front of the Beowulf. Just as he got the children inside he saw an eruption of flames engulf the Beowulf along with some of his buddies. Then he saw airships coming towards the village, he got the children to safety and then went to meet with the people who came to save the village. As he got there he saw a Man with short black hair who immediately noticed Chase.

"It's dangerous out here, you need to hide"

"There's a group of children over there, you need to help them"

"Where are they?"

"Follow me" Chase lead the man towards the group of children he saved he opened the door and looked back at the man

"I have a safe place not too far from here, I can come back to find survivors later but you children are priority"

"Umm" one of the children said, a little girl with long black hair, she pointed to one of the others "She sprained her ankle"

Chase walked over to the girl she had pointed to lifting her arm around his neck and bringing her up "Where is this safe place?" The man led the way*

He was interrupted from his memory when Neo crawled through the window of the abandoned apartment they had been using as a hiding place. He hid the book and looked up to her "They looking for us?"

"They don't even know we were on the train, if they did they have assumed us dead in the crash"

"Then I'll be heading to Beacon tomorrow"

"I have to leave to find Ironwood soon, after this he will be more defensive"

"See ya"

Neo didn't reply and left after eating. Chase watched her leave and then realised that he recognised the man from his memory -General Ironwood was the man who found me at the village, the man behind all the experiments- _But why investigate him if he's in charge_ -She isn't, if I go to Beacon which they expect me to I can tell them that the good General has nothing to do with this and that he is being spied on- _Which means he knows Neo is coming to spy on him_ -If I don't betray them to go to Beacon he could always say he found Neo spying on him, if that happens…- Chase hurried to the window, Neo was already far away. _I don't think that's the only problem we have now_ -Hmm?- _Well we know that there's another personality in here, you saw what happened in the train_ -Yeah-

-_Did I hear someone talking about me_\- _Now that you're here, why don't you just take control? _\- _Because it's fun watching the two of you_\- -So you're not going to take over- -_Not yet, I've grown quite fond of this life you've made for yourself_\- -Great-

Chase decided to get some sleep as he was going to have to sneak into Beacon tomorrow and wanted to make sure he was well rested

*"Who'd have thought you'd be the one who'd try to escape first, don't you want to protect these people" Ironwood said standing in front of his squad of dust-infused mercenaries "And how could a monster like me save these people, especially when you've made them hate me" Ironwood smirked as he gave the order to attack*


	10. Chapter 10: Welcome (back) to Beacon

Chase ran across the rooftops and dropped down into an alley. He needed to get to the port before the airship left for Beacon. After what happened security was going to be tight and getting by wouldn't be easy. _But easy wouldn't be anywhere near as fun_. He stopped right before the entrance. Looking at the electronic display for departures he saw the one for Beacon was leaving in 15 minutes.

Sprinting down the corridor towards the airship he stopped as he saw the security, they weren't letting anyone in if they didn't have a Beacon ID or a team accompanying them. Chase cursed silently to himself as he thought of how to get by them. -We could just use an illusion to look as if we have an ID- _No, they'll be scanning IDs to make sure they aren't fake_ -Then the same would go for making it look like I was a part of a team- -_You could always just swim there_\- _No one asked for your opinion, what if you just made it so they can't see you and snuck on_ -That could work as long as no one here can see through my illusions-

As he walked through the port, Chase was on alert for anyone showing signs of seeing him. He looked around to see if he could recognise any of the students but most of those sent out to fight were third and fourth years. He knew not many of the students would be going this way as they got here via Bullhead. Then he saw team RWBY standing together while waiting

"I'm telling you I saw a tail made out of ice inches away from my throat"

"But there's no way he would work for them let alone try to kill you, besides you weren't hurt"

"Either way he was on the train, whether he was with us or not, someone attacked that Neo before she could kill me"

-So they did notice me, let's hope Pyrrha is able to keep my being here a secret-

"All passengers boarding for Beacon the gates are now open"

Chase walked through the crowd, making sure he didn't bump into anyone which was made easier as they formed a line to get in. He walked along the side of the line and jumped through the security gate and walked on to the airship. The trip back was fairly long so he spent the time going through some of his other memories.

*"Now, to form a weapon with the dust I have infused with you just simply let you aura take the form it wants to and then send the dust inside within you to create a solid form" Chase had tried as hard as he could to focus his aura into his hands as the others were doing to create a weapon. He looked around to see everyone else had either succeeded or were close.

"You are trying too hard, you aura knows what to do just let it take the shape"

As chase stopped trying to focus it into his hands he felt his aura take shape on his lower back. Feeling happy that he was finally able to do it he sent some of the ice dust in him to the spot where he felt his aura shaped and looked around to see the horror on the other childrens' faces. He wondered why they all looked at him as if he were some sort of…. monster. He realised when he saw what shape his aura had taken. He looked over to the scientist and saw a slight grin.

"Well, this is certainly interesting, who would like to be the first to take on Chase in the arena?"

Chase looked around to see a mixed response, most shook their heads rapidly in fear while a three volunteered without hesitation. Among those who volunteered he could see Cinder, the girl who told him about Neo's injured leg, Neo and Shu who was infused with wind dust and had a greatsword.

"I wasn't expecting so many volunteers, how about we do a 3 vs 1"

Chase wanted to protest but he was shut down as the others walked towards the preparation area and he was being pushed there. Chase quickly took note of the weapon each of them had and tried to guess their fighting style. Cinder had two short curved sword so he would have to keep his eye on her as she would be fast and could land a lot of hits if he wasn't careful. Neo had a rapier and was infused with energy dust, he couldn't guess how she would fight. Lastly Shu, Chase guessed that since this guy had air dust he wouldn't be heavy and slow as he had hoped.

Chase walked into the Arena and saw the three of them walk out the other side. They had probably spent the preparation time working out how they could fight together so he would have to split them up. The bell went off and Chase sprinted towards them Shu greeted him by swinging his greatsword at Chase, he had narrowly avoided it and was pushed back as Neo hit him in mid-air. He got up quickly and rolled to the side to avoid Cinder's swords. Chase ran forward again, extending his tail and blocking Shu's greatsword as Chase focused aura into his right hand and punched him, he then swung his tail causing Cinder and Neo to back up giving Chase some distance. He then flipped back as he saw Shu lung towards Chase and got caught by Cinder who unloaded several light hits into him. Chase then felt something launch him into the air and then again as he slammed to the ground. He jumped back up in time to block some attacks by Cinder but these three weren't leaving any openings for a counter now.

He retreated to try and get some breathing room, just as Shu began another charge his right eye went blind. The vision returned to his eye and he could see Shu charging, he turned to Neo using his tail to parry Shu and then he grabbed Neo with his tail and threw her across the arena. However his aura was low due to the combos he had taken so when Cinder shot an arrow at him he fell unconscious.*

Chase saw Beacon academy as the airship came close to docking there. -So close to finding out what my semblance is- _Another, I thought yours was illusions_ -No, didn't you see how bad my illusions are, that's your semblance- As soon as he got off the airship he headed to the armory to see if Pyrrha had made it so he could make whatever weapon his dust had in mind.

He waited outside until he saw Pyrrha walking by, she looked around as if trying to find him so he released the illusion he put around himself

"You have the armory to yourself for an hour, but that's as much as I can do"

"Thanks, hopefully I'll be able to reveal myself to the others soon"

She simply nodded and Chase walked in -So what did you have in mind- _No peeking, you'll see when it's done_

**A/N So now, hopefully, I'll be posting chapters on Saturday and Monday. Any reviews would be appreciated as this is my first attempt at a fanfiction and I don't know if you are enjoying reading it as much as I am writing.**


	11. Chapter 11: The Monster Unleashed

The weapon making process had taken a couple of days in the armory as he had found out that the bone armour on Deathstalkers is, in fact, extremely difficult to mold into any shape and even worse to try and make adjustments or attachments. Chase looked at the bone plating on his hands -So what did you make?- _The activation button is on the part I strapped onto your palm_ Chase pressed the button and the bone plating extended creating a gauntlet that covered from his elbow to his fingertips, the armour around his fingers was made sharper to replicate the claws that ursas have. _There's also a network of tubes around the gauntlets which can have dust inserted while it is deactivated allowing your punches to pack some extra effects, the bone armour both makes up for your lack of strength and looks really cool, if people want to see you as a monster this makes it that much easier. There was originally going to be a gun but I thought that would just look stupid. That and I never want to have to mould bone plating again_. Chase just starred in awe at the gauntlets before deactivating them and walking outside.

"That's me done for weapons now I just need two more things and I'll be ready to leave and be free of them"

"What else do you need?"

Ruby's voice had startled him, the young huntress-in-training had an amazing ability to walk up to people unnoticed.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class or something?"

"Crescent Rose started malfunctioning so I came here for some maintenance, stop being evasive. Why are you here?"

"I thought I attended Beacon" Chase said with mock surprise

"You've been missing for weeks" Ruby said unimpressed

"Well I was captured, no thanks to the people who came to the arena to help, and then I was tortured until I agreed to work with the guys who captured me and they told me to spy on Beacon so I am getting prepared to fight them when they realise I'm not coming back"

"Chase how many more days do you need the armo…. Chase when did you get back!" Pyrrha said pretending she didn't know to Ruby

"Pyrrha, you knew all along and you didn't tell us"

"Actually I asked her not to, I think there might be other people spying in Beacon for them"

"Then why would they send you?"

"That's what I've been trying to find out,they're never sloppy like this, I think that they sent me here for something else but I don't know what yet"

"Obviously they want you to escape again"

"That's why I am getting ready so that they can't drag me back this time"

"So what else is it that you need, we can help"

"Not for these, firstly I need to remember what my semblance is, and secondly I need to control my psychotic personality"

The two huntresses-in-training looked at him with confused faces.

"I'd love to explain but people will be able to see me here if we wait any longer, is there anywhere we can talk with less visibility?"

"No one should be at the Team JNPR dorm for at least another hour"

Chase put an illusion over himself as he followed the two to the Team JNPR dorm when he could see Yang walking by them.

"Hey Rubes, where ya going?"

Chase could see Ruby was nervous about having to lie to her sister while Pyrrha was struggling to think of something to say so he focused and let Yang see through his illusion.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Chase could see that Yang's eyes turned red the instant that she saw him, naturally he was terrified as she could easily kill him right now. -Why is she angry with me it's not as if I had a choice in being captured- - _It could be because I nearly killed her on the train_\- -What the hell, Now I have to deal with this you ass-

"Look it wasn't me, well it was but …. Ugh I may as well explain this to you as well when we get to the Team JNPR dorm."

Luckily they were able to get to the Team JNPR dorm without meeting anyone else on the way. As Chase entered he stopped creating an illusion around him and saw the expectant faces.

"Probably best if you just read this" he said throwing the book towards them. He sat on Jaune's bed as he waited for them to finish. -Would you please behave, that means no more threatening teammates- -_You're no fun_\- Pyrrha was the first to finish followed by Ruby and then Yang.

"So I know that I have two other personalities inside me due to the dust infusion, however I don't know what my own semblance is and I can't control the other personalities as the apparently having a semblance and knowing what it is makes your aura stronger, when we were on the train my more psychotic personality took over and nearly killed Yang"

"To figure out your semblance you should just focus on using your aura and it will come naturally"

"and that's how I found it the first time, I can remember the fight that caused me to realise my semblance but I still don't know what it is"

"Well, why don't we put you through a similar situation and then your semblance should appear naturally, what happened when you found it the first time"

"I was in a 3 vs 1 situation and losing fast, my three opponents were able to work so well together that I couldn't even find any sign of them stopping never mind an opportunity"

"So then why not have a 3 vs 1 against us three"

"Then I could get flashbacks from the original fight… that could work, now all we need is to get into the arena without anyone disturbing us which is apparently very easy"

"I can tell that you're not going to let that go"

"Why should I, I was in there at least an hour"

"Alright, I'll book the arena for tomorrow and you find a way to get in without being seen by anybody"

"Should be easy, I was able to get back into Beacon without anyone noticing me"

As Chase was getting ready to set up an illusion and leave he heard something from the room

"You're seeing this to?"

He turned back to see the three of them looking at their scrolls, as he looked over Ruby at her scroll he saw Neo kneeling down with her hands tied behind her back and General Ironwood standing behind her.

"It has come to my attention that the White Fang is not working alone, they are under a company which is experimenting with the implications dust can have on human and faunus, this is one such test subject sent to spy on me" He pointed down at Neo and then continued "They are extremely dangerous, I lost many good men just trying to capture this one, I have got all of the information that could be got by any means possible and I wanted to show, to anyone who considers such a heinous act progression for humanity that this is not the answer. Do you have anything to say young girl?"

Neo was silent for a moment and then Chase heard something very faint from the video which he recognised as the ear implant and then she said "It hurts so much, please just… end it" Chase was frozen in horror. -Those bastards, they wouldn't. I'll fuckin kill him- As if on cue Ironwood pulled out a pistol, loaded with a dust round as he fired at Neo's head. She sat still and then fell to the ground with a pool of blood surrounding her head.

Everything went dark as Chase lost control of his body and his more psychotic side took over. He felt a cold relief as darkness began to take over and the light began to disappear.


	12. Chapter 12: Battle of the Mind

Chase looked around to find himself in his bedroom from his home village. His room was plain, the walls were made of wood as the village had an abundance around them, his bed was plain with a white mattress and a thin blue blanket. There was a wardrobe with some clothes and coats as in winter it would get very cold, even grimm would avoid their village in winter.

He could see a figure opening the door, once she walked in he recognised her as Summer Rose, the huntress that died saving his life. She was in her white cloak that covered her so he couldn't see her face well, though he knew that this was not real as he could still remember her death vividly.

"If I'm dreaming then why are you here" While Chase was sure he had said it it felt more as if he just thought it as he couldn't hear himself

"Because I'm the part of you who still wants to keep fighting" Yet again, it felt more like this conversation was going on telepathically.

"Fight against what, I'm in a dream?"

"You're not asleep. You're not in control of your body and the more psychotic side is probably running a rampage in Beacon"

"People die anyway, what difference does it make who does it?"

"But this time you can change it, you couldn't control me or Neo's deaths but you can stop Ironwood and you can stop the deaths of people like you did in that small village"

"It doesn't matter, even if I wanted to he has a more powerful mental presence than me, he can use two semblances and I don't even know what mine is"

"So you're just going to sit here and do what? Is this the person you've become? The boy that left that village would never give up, this is your mind kick him out"

"That little boy didn't know he'd turn into a monster because I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like what I've become physically as well as mentally!" Chase almost screaming at Summer now

"That's not what you think, you only think of yourself as a monster due to Ironwood"

"I have yet to see anyone say otherwise, face it my dust forms into a fucking tail"

"Everyone at Beacon didn't think that, though after what your other personality that may change"

"I'd prefer to die hated than someone cry for me after I died anyway"

"Do you want to know what death is like, it's nothing just a pile of boring nothing. Your resolve has weakened vastly from your fight with Tony"

"It's a lot less painful than what life has turned out to be"

"Life is meant to be painful, you deal with it and you move on. Someone dies and this is how you react, Ironwood has already won"

"I just don't see the point in going on if he is going to win anyway, he always wins…. wait a minute"

"What is is now?"

"I didn't see it, in my fight with Tony I couldn't see him yet I was able to dodge so well. In my fight with Cinder, Neo and Shu I went blind but I knew Neo was behind me. I couldn't see but I could feel their aura, it was something so small that I ignored it the first time"

Chase went back to the moment in his fight with Neo, Cinder and Shu. Shu charged at him and Chase slowed down the memory when he went blind and focused on his aura. He could feel the movement in Shu's aura towards his sword as if preparing to activated some of the dust, then he could feel Neo's aura behind him, rapier raised with an intent on stabbing Chase and he knew what was about to happen. Then he countered by attacking Neo first.

"Does that count as a semblance?"

"The ability to sense not just aura but intent is definitely classed as a semblance, and a very useful one as well, however I get the feeling that this isn't all which can be done with your aura"

"Then let's get control of my body back"

As he said it the room around him began to freeze and a creature made of ice appeared in front of him. It was hunched over with sharper claws than a grimm as well as deep, black eyes.

"Get the hell out of my head" Only this time it felt as if he was actually saying it

"I'm afraid I can't it's my head as well and you can't change that"

He looked at Summer

"You want to fight then distract him for as long as you can, I have an idea"

Summer leaped towards the monster while Chase struggled to get control of his body. He looked around to see that he was in the Beacon gardens with Hunters surrounding him, weapons drawn. Some he recognised as his former teammates and others as renowned hunters and huntresses.

"I haven't got much time" Chase said in a weak voice "I need everyone to stand away from me for a while" then he felt himself being forced back into his mind

"What were you hoping to accomplish, a quick death?"

"No, I just needed some space"

"For what?"

"Well, I'm sure you know but my semblance allows me to feel aura and get a glimpse at what people are trying to do, so I know exactly where your aura is-"

"And I yours" the beast interrupted

"Yes but the jack of all trades is really the master of shit all"

"Where are you going with this?"

"You can use both semblances but because of that you haven't needed to rely on just one and therefore haven't developed either. Like this" Chase focused on the aura the dust produced and spread his own onto it, attempting to force it out

"What the fuck are you doing!"

"Well, as long as I have a strong connection with aura I can.. manipulate it, to an extent, and right now the only power you have over me is that you have more aura, thought I'd even the playing field"

"Then that means that I can do it as well, anything you can do I can do better" Chase felt a slight tug at his aura and simply forced the source out, he continued this process until the evil intent within him was gone, still keeping some dust for the illusion semblance.

Chase opened his eyes to see Ozpin standing in front of the Hunters and Huntresses who holstered their weapons as soon as his eyes opened.

"Good to see you are back with us" Ozpin said calmly taking a sip out of his coffee

"Sorry for what I did, kind of lost control of my body for a while there, though that shouldn't be a problem anymore"

"Well, after doing so much I am saddened to tell you that General Ironwood is coming to place you under arrest as you are one of the experiments that were infused with dust"

"I doubt that's the only reason he is coming here, if memory serves me well I would advise all the hunters and huntresses here prepare for another fight"

"You'll have to elaborate as currently I am the only reason most of the people aren't trying to kill you and yet you make such an accusation about one of my most trustworthy friends"

"Well I find it strange that the person leading the human experimentation with dust would kill one of his experiments and then come to arrest another, wouldn't you. Don't you also find it strange that said person would then send a spy to himself and a mentally unstable person to spy on Beacon? Then proceed to kill the spy he sent to himself and make it public"

"You're right, that would be a strange thing to do. You have about two hours to brief everyone on what we are to expect, try anything strange and they have my permission to finish you"


	13. Chapter 13: Battle of Beacon

Chase looked around at all of the people standing before him, Ozpin had been kind enough to let Chase use of the classrooms to tell everyone what to prepare for. Even though they were listening intently Chase knew that they would turn on him if he was wrong about Ironwood coming here for more than his arrest -Luckily I don't think Ironwood counted on them actually listening to me-

"If I am right that Ironwood is here for more than one reason then he will play it off as my arrest and then try to take you by surprise, if I know him he is counting on two things. First that it took a lot of your aura to subdue me and secondly that none of you will actually believe me. Fortunately I can tell if he has brought anyone with him as I have the ability to sense aura, if there isn't anyone with him then I'll just go with him."

Chase looked around to see the reactions of the people in front of him, they all seemed happy at that suggestion which was disheartening to say the least. He sighed and then went back to his explanation

"On the other hand, if I sense the aura of others who are infused with dust then I ask that you help me, if Ironwood is seen to be able to take down the Hunters and Huntresses of Beacon then that would be a symbolic victory for him, everyone else might just give up and surrender therefore I am going to run you through the fighting styles and weapons of the mercenaries that he has infused with dust"

Chase ran through his memories of all of his fights while he was with Ironwood and pointed out any weaknesses or strengths he could remember them show outside of the arena. By the time he was finished he himself had little time to prepare for the possible upcoming fight. He let Ozpin cuff him as he was led towards the airship dock. Ozpin slipped the key into Chase's hand and made sure the rest of the Hunters and Huntresses were ready. By the time they reached the airship dock Chase could see General Ironwood's private airship closing in.

"One more thing before this goes to shit, I would like to apologise to all of those I attacked when I lost control earlier, however be warned that I'm not the only experiment that can lose control"

As soon as General Ironwood's airship landed Chase activated his semblance and searched the ship for any auras. To his surprise there was nothing other than General Ironwood's. -Why would he come here alone, this would be his perfect opportunity to strike- Chase turned his focus away from the airship and realised why it was empty. He could feel auras infused with dust all around him. -Shit they know, they were there during the briefing, he even planned for this- and that's when he felt something leave the ship. An incredible amount of aura being produced by just one source, when he focused on it he could feel every type of dust inside it. He switched off his semblance to see a short girl with orange hair. He turned around to see everyone had seen his horrified face

"What the hell did you do Ironwood?"

"You're the abomination here"

"What was dust infused people not enough that you have to go around creating worse"

Ironwood gave him a confused face "I have no idea what you're talking about"

"I'm talking about her" Chase said glaring at Penny nearly spitting his words

"Chase she's good, she helped us before" Ruby joined in

"Oh, you don't know do you"

"Know what?"

"Why stop with one form of dust, he didn't, she's infused with every kind of dust. I'm surprised she can stand right now"

Ironwood smirked at what Chase said "So you know about Penny"

"It's hard not to sense the immense aura she gives off, also why bring her here if you just came for me"

"I didn't assume you'd come easily"

Chase began trying to unlock his cuffs with the key that Ozpin gave him. That's when he felt his handcuffs start to burn and dropped the keys onto the ground.

"Now now we can't have you escaping that easily" he heard Cinder walking through the crowd as she stood in front of him

"Why don't the rest of you show your faces, that's why you are here isn't it. Keep an eye on me to make sure I didn't plan anything"

Chase looked around to see no one else reveal themselves -They want to make sure that the rest are trusted when the fight begins, she only revealed herself to keep me from being able to join the fight-

"Or not, anyway, how is it that she is in control anyway?"

"Well, she's not human therefore we can make sure to keep those monsters in check"

"She's another one of your toy bots then. That makes sense." -He's confident, he might still think they'll turn on me. Either way will this amount be able to fend him off, not if Penny joins in she could be worth an entire school of Hunters, if I can cause her dust to come out she might be more manageable-

"So then you think you 10 mercs plus that robot can take on this entire school"

"Easily, though I was really hoping to do this democratically, I mean seriously, they are all tired from fighting you and I believe most of them would rather you dead"

"I doubt that, now way would they just stand by and let you take over"

"Even so I have the advantage as they can't recognise my people from yours" -I knew I forgot something, they have no idea what the enemy looks like- He looked around to see the hunters and huntresses around him, none looking willing to fight. Chase sighed but then he heard a gunshot go off to the left of him, he turned in the direction but didn't see anyone. Suddenly his handcuffs were broken and he could fight. He turned to his right to see Ruby with Crescent Rose readied, swiftly joined by her team and team JNPR

"So what's your plan" she whispered to him

"Leave Penny to me, team RWBY can fight Cinder while team JNPR get the other students to fight and make sure there are at least two people fighting one of these guys, be careful of their dust and combos"

She nodded and then used her semblance to close in on Cinder and the rest of her team followed. Chase focused on penny. As he walked up she released her weapons, an array of swords. Chase activated his gauntlets and ran towards her. She dodged his punch and followed up by hitting him with her swords. Chase got up to avoid another one of her attacks. He blocked the next one with his gauntlets before going in and landing a hit. Even though he hit her Penny didn't even flinch. -So physical attacks are out of the question, I need a plan to deal with her- Chase dodged a few more of her attacks before punching her again, this time activating the fire dust in his fist causing a small explosion upon impact. This time she flinched a little but at this rate he wasn't getting anywhere. -What if I could activate the dust inside her… it could work but I'd need to get a strong connection with her aura, I've got it-

Chase leaped back and ran towards team RWBY, activating his aura only in his right eye so that he could keep an eye on Penny. They were fighting Cinder, Chase jumped in and punched Cinder knocking her back. He activated the ice dust in his other gauntlet and froze the ground around Cinder.

"We have to end this quickly, I need your help with Penny, Blake send one of your shadows in"

Chase created an illusion of Blake behind her shadow and then he ran to Cinder's side after she hit the shadow she turned her attention to Chase, knowing the second one was an illusion. -God I hope this works, otherwise Cinder could be troublesome-

**Cinder's View**

-He must be stupid if he thought I'd fall for his illusion- Cinder took some of her fire dust and sent it towards Chase activating it to cause fire pillars to appear in front of him. She saw him get caught in one -That was almost too easy- at that moment she felt something hit the side of her face and then there was an explosion and Cinder lost consciousness.

**Chase's View**

"Oh thank dust that worked"

"What did you just do?"

"I'll explain later, first we need to get out of here, Penny's charging something up"

Chase and team RWBY got out of the way just in time to avoid Penny's beam. -Ok this is just not fair, she has a freakin laser-. He turned around to team RWBY

"I need you to distract her for a while"

"Are you serious?!"

"I can't take her down normally but I have a plan and it requires some time"

Ruby nodded and they went to engage Penny. -Alright, I seem to be able to control my other aura so this should be no problem- Chase began focusing on the dust infused in him and began channeling it to his gauntlet. _What the hell do you think you're doing using me like this _-Be thankful I left this much of you in me-

Chase looked up and saw that team RWBY were doing a good job distracting Penny, though more through peaceful ways than trying to fight her.

He ran up to them and shouted "Back off I've got this from here"

"Just please don't kill her" Ruby requested

"Don't worry I don't think I could if I wanted to. Though she is going to need you whenever I've finished"

Chase dodged her swords and placed his gauntlet with dust from within him on her head and released it into her, he was lucky that the ice dust that was infused with her was similar to that which was inside him. Firstly he began adding to the dust that was flowing through her, he then found a barrier which stopped it from gaining control and helped weaken it before removing his hand.

"That should be enough to stop her fighting us for now" Chase said heavily, tired from his over-use of his semblances.

Penny stood still for a moment before attacking the dust infused mercenaries, a manic grin on her face. Seeing what Chase did Ironwood pressed a button and deactivated Penny.

"Ruby, remember I said she's gonna need you when I was finished" Ruby looked at him nodding "You need to make sure that Ironwood doesn't get to her… also getting that remote might be useful"

The Ruby went after Ironwood along with Weiss while Blake and Yang got Penny to safety. Pyrrha was the one to get the remote using her semblance. Chase saw that Ironwood was still retreating and that he had the microphone that controlled the mercenaries. Quickly he focused and created an illusion inside Ironwood's airship and used his trick from earlier to switch places with the illusion. Barely able to stand Chase closed the door to the airship before Ironwood could get in. He found a speaker inside the control room and used it to get into contact with the people outside

"Get the microphone off Ironwood, if you destroy it the mercenaries should stop attacking you. They are being forced into it by some implant"

Chase stumbled around the airship until he found the research notes on Chase, Penny and the other experiments. He used the last of his aura to ignite the notes so that no one could ever find them, of course he would have to find the copies but at least this would help. Just as he used the fire dust he collapsed to the floor. The fire began spreading all over the airship and he was sure at this rate the airship would lose it's altitude. He tried to send an illusion outside but he didn't have enough aura to do anything so he lay down and passed out.

**A/N Well that was a long chapter for me to write, anyway thank you for reading and to the review I got, I had to kill someone who was close to Chase of to get him to go berserk. See you in the next and maybe last chapter.**


	14. Chapter 14: Reawakening

"In the end it wasn't me or any of the mercenaries that brought an end to you, it was your own humanity and your want to prevent this happening to anyone else that killed you."

"I'm dead?"

"Not really, not yet at least but you won't regain consciousness in time to live so you may as well be"

"Last thing I remembered was locking Ironwood out of the airship"

"Afterwards you went to burn Ironwood's research, the fire spread and the airship lost altitude, water is slowly seeping in and soon you're gonna drown"

"I can't do anything about it?"

"No you used up too much aura in the last fight I'd be surprised if you could even open your eyes at this point"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try"

"Go ahead but right now you're just running on fumes"

"Apparently I have enough to argue with myself so why not use it for something more productive"

Chase focused on leaving the dream world he was in, he could feel the water surrounding him and quickly checked how much aura he had, some had been generated since he was last awake but not much. He swam around to find a window or something that he could use as an exit. He settled on a door to what he assumed was a balcony. He activated his gauntlets and started punching the door, it didn't do much as the pressure from the other side countered the force of his fist. -Well this water had to come from somewhere- He swam upstream to find the puncture that let the water in. He found a window that must've cracked during the crash so he punched it with his gauntlet to make a bigger hole for him to fit through. The force of the extra water flowing in knocked him back against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

**Shu's view**

The sirens that could be heard from the city weren't helping Shu, he needed to remain calm if he was going to convince Ozpin

"We can't just sit here and wait. You're people are too weak from the fight, we can go and help in the city"

"It's too much of a risk to send anyone out into the city, it's crawling with grim"

"We've been wanting a chance to fight grim since Chase saved us, let us do this for you"

"We still don't know whether or not you can be trusted and until Chase regains consciousness I am not taking that risk"

"We don't have that sort of time, people could die and we don't have Ironwood's army with him in jail"

"Fine, under the condition that your people join us here at Beacon, we can only give Bullheads to hunters and huntresses or those in training"

"We'll do it, most of us wanted to go to Beacon anyway"

Ozpin pressed a button on his table and spoke into the microphone, after that he gestured to the door behind Shu.

He went to the around Beacon to try and find the others, after they broke Ironwood's microphone him and the other mercenaries offered to help out at Beacon due to how much damage they had caused. He found some of them in the hall looking after the tired hunters and huntresses, nearly all of them were dangerously low on aura after the fight, he found Otior, a mercenary who was infused with lightning dust and used an electrified whip.

"We got permission from Ozpin to help out in the city"

"But we need to stay here in case grimm attack Beacon"

"That's why I'm only taking a small team, me, you, Cinder and Chenoo"

"Alright, when do we leave?"

"As soon as we find the others, you get Chenoo and I'll find Cinder"

"Alright, Cinder should be in the hospital, she started feeling bad about what she's done"

"Thanks, when you find Chenoo head over to the dock, Ozpin is arranging a Bullhead to pick us up"

Shu left to find the hospital and when he walked in he was happy that not that many people needed to be brought here. He found Cinder looking at someone in a hospital bed.

"Even though we tried to kill him and called him a monster he wanted to save us"

"How's he doing?"

"They say that he's physically fine and should wake up… but he's not generating aura at all."

"But grimm are the only creatures that can't generate an aura, he's got to be producing some"

"There's still only a sliver of aura left in him and we saved him two hours ago"

"I'm afraid we have a mission, this will have to wait"

"What do you mean we have a mission! Haven't we done enough already"

"It's to help the people in Vale, the rest of trains were launched at the city and it's crawling with grimm. We need to go and help evacuate and clean up the grimm"

"If it's to help someone then you can count me in, when do we leave"

"There should be a Bullhead waiting for us now, let's go"

The two left Chase in the hospital room and headed out for the city

**Chase's view**

"Ok I'm not that stupid, I should've drowned by now. What's actually going on?"

"You're smarter than your average Beowulf, it only took you a couple hours"

"So what's really going on?"

"Come on, what would be the fun if I told you that?"

"Ok then, assuming from the fact that both me and you are still here I'm not dead so someone must've saved me"

"You're one for one"

"But if I'm not awake that must mean that I was injured during the time it took for someone to save me"

"Not quite, try again"

"If it's not physical it's something to do with my aura"

"Getting closer, what would have to happen for you not to be awake that comes from your aura?"

"I don't have enough to gain consciousness"

"Oh, he's two for two, let's see if he can get why"

"You, you're somehow stopping me from regaining aura, but you wouldn't have enough to stop it we both ran out of aura when I went unconscious"

"How about a clue, it's to do with that new trick you used"

"My teleport used both of our semblances, yours to create an imprint of my aura and mine to move us to that template, I guess you could say it's like…. oh no"

"He's got it, when you used that trick you merged our auras, creating what some people may call an evolved semblance with a merged aura"

"What does that have to do with us not generating aura?"

"Well, as it's a merged aura both of us have to produce aura for it to be useful and right now that's the only type of aura your body will accept. Only problem is that to merge our aura you need to use that semblance and we don't have enough to use it"

"So one of us needs to become dominant and control the other to merge both in the generation process"

"Yeah, and we'd need to do it pretty quickly. Or else people are going to find out where the strongest types of grimm come from"

"What do you mean, grimm can't be humans they were here before us"

"Most of them yes, however, the ones which give people the most trouble, your deathstalkers and nevermores are pure human. Besides a grimm can only be artificially made if someone dies from a lack of aura"

"Well then time to take back my body again"

"Hold it, I never said I wanted a fight"

"Well seeing as that's what you usually do I just assumed"

"I'm willing to let you control this body under one condition, you let my conscious stay"

"And why would I do that?"

"Well, I am just dust, a substance that has existed as long as remnant, I'll help you and give you useful information as long as you let me live"

"Why the change in personality all of a sudden?"

"If you must know I wouldn't like to become as I was before I was infused in this body, also after you forced most of me out I realised that you might be able to help me as well"

"Fine then, let's get this over with"

Chase opened his eyes to see the light of the Beacon hospital room, he was still tired but he was at least conscious. He looked around to see that a few of the other beds were occupied. As he tried to get up his body felt stiff, he slowed himself and got up onto his feet.

Slowly he walked out of the hospital with a slight limp, he headed straight to Ozpin's office to get an update on what had happened while he was out. On his way he saw the door to team RWBY's dorm and decided to see them first.

"She still won't respond, whatever Ironwood to her has caused a lot of damage"

Chase walked in to see team RWBY along with team JNPR crowded around Penny, presumably they were trying to fix her.

"Mind if I have a go?"

As soon as Chase spoke they broke their concentration and turned around at him. Blake and Ren looked at him worryingly while the others were glad to see that he was ok.

"You're awake" Pyrrha was the first to speak up

"Yeah, and feeling a lot better now that I can generate aura again"

"Again?" Ruby spoke out confused

"Long story, really complicated basically what they did to me should stop having new effects"

Chase stepped over to Penny and crouched in front of her placing a hand on her forehead he used his semblance. The dust auras inside her were messing with the connection with her wiring which was causing the malfunction. He decided to force them back and create a barrier to keep them from doing any worse. Once he did so he took a step back, a little weak from using up so much aura.

"She should be fine now"

Ruby pressed the button Ironwood had with him and Penny opened her eyes and looked around at everyone.

"Why are you all staring at me?"

"Nothing, anyway I best be going, I have to find Ozpin to find out what happened while I was out"

"Well I think a group of the mercenaries went out into the city to deal with the grimm"

"We need to stop them"

"Why, they're perfectly capable in combat as they displayed to us" said Ren

"Because they are mentally unstable, any moment the dust inside them could take over, especially in a stressful situation such as fighting grimm"

"I think there might still be an extra Bullhead"

"Then what are we waiting for we've got to go"

"What about Penny, and the others. Someone needs to stay here, only a few hunters are still able to fight if we leave then Beacon is wide open to a grimm attack and the mercenaries"

"Alright, Ruby, Pyrrha, Jaune and I will go the rest of you stay"

"Why us?"

"Ruby is good at dealing with a lot of grimm, Pyrrha's semblance would be useless against their dust and Jaune couldn't hold out against a mercenary"

"Alright, let's go"


	15. Chapter 15: Another Breach

As their Bullhead approached Vale Chase could see another one landing in the centre of town. He looked over to Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune and signalled the Landing Zone to the pilot.

"When we get there I need you to cover me while I try and stop them from going bat shit crazy"

Pyrrha and Jaune nodded while Chase could see Ruby was grinning at the chance to kill grimm, when they landed the mercenaries had cleared an area of grimm which made landing a lot easier.

"Guys fall back"

"We've got this, why are you guys here you need to be back at Beacon" Shu responded

"No, the dust inside you could take over due to the stress of a fight"

"The what? Dust doesn't have a mind of it's own"

Chase looked back to Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha and nodded at them signaling for them to take over

"Trust me on this, the reason you get another semblance is because the dust inside you develops it's own aura"

"And how do you know about this?" Otior looked at him intrigued

"Because I've been through it, that's why I went rogue in Beacon"

"So we all have another aura surrounding us?"

"Yes, it takes on the traits of the dust you are infused with, it may be so subtle that you don't even notice"

"That would explain a lot" Shu said calmly

"Anyway you can't use your aura unless you are certain that it is yours or else you give more power to the dust, this also happens when you use your weapon"

"That would explain why it affected you the most, you basically used your weapon all the time"

"I also used the dust aura's semblance all the time as well"

"What is your dust's semblance, we never got to see it?"

"Illusions, my semblance is sensing and to an extent manipulating auras"

"So wouldn't you be able to tell if we weren't using our aura"

"Technically yes, though I don't know how close you are to going insane which is why you shouldn't fight here"

"Alright, but you're helping us with this when you get back"

"I'm helping everyone go through this when I get back, just keep an eye on them"

They ran back to their Bullhead and Chase ran towards the grimm activating his gauntlets and punching a Beowulf, knocking it back. After fending off a pack of Beowulves he searched for the rest. He made his way to Ruby who was slicing everything around her. Once he got close enough to get her attention she stopped.

"We need a plan to get the civilians out of here"

"Pyrrha and Jaune are rounding up civilians, you go clear a landing zone for evacuation while I try to stop them from getting in"

"Alright, good luck"

Ruby grinned and returned to slicing everything around her. Chase though of areas that he could use as an evacuation point and made his way over to the city centre, to the plaza where the first train crashed.

As soon as he got there a horde of grimm turned towards him and howled. Chase simply activated his gauntlets and released his frozen tail and ran towards them. He swung around and punched an ursa activating his fire dust which caused an explosion, killing the nearby Beowulves. He then switched to his ice dust and slammed his hand on the ground, causing ice spikes to erupt and impale most of the grimm. All that remained was two deathstalkers and a nevermore. Chase climbed one of the buildings and jumped onto the nevermore, it tried to shake him off but he stabbed it with his tail to stay on, after which he stabbed his fingers into the nevermore and caused it to explode from the inside. While it descended he tried to aim it at one of the deathstalkers and succeeded, taking down both. As he got off the nevermore the deathstalker swung at him with it's claw, Chase grabbed the claw with his gauntlet, stopping it dead in it's tracks. The beast swung with his other claw but Chase grabbed that one as well, pulling back he ripped off both claws in time to avoid the stinger, he threw one of the claws at the deathstalker while he ran in and dug his claws into the eyes, causing the beast to scream in pain. Chase decided to finish it off by creating and ice spike underneath it sharp enough to pierce the tough underbelly.

-Great, so how do I signal that this is the evacuation zone to the others, they could be anywhere- _I might have an idea for that, take out some of fire and water dust_ Chase did as he said and followed his instructions _Right, that should make steam if you channel your aura into it add more fire I would've made a flare but it's the middle of the day_. Chase channeled his aura and a red smoke began floating upwards letting Pyrrha and Jaune know where he was. -Ok, you've got to teach me more about dust, that was awesome- _There's a lot your people don't know, I guess I can teach you some of the basics_.

Pyrrha and Jaune arrived with a crowd of civilians behind them hiding to make sure the grimm couldn't find them.

"Ok guys this area is clear, is that all the survivors?"

"That's everyone who got to safety within the houses….. there were a lot who didn't make it"

"Why the hell would he do this! If he only wanted to take over Beacon then why attack the city, why the civilians?"

"To make it look like we weren't good enough anymore, like they needed him"

"I'll find Ruby, she might need your help Pyrrha to clog up the holes the grimm are getting in through"

As Chase activated his senses he was overwhelmed by the fear of the people around him. -That's just going to attract more of them, I have an idea that might help- he focused more and found Ruby getting overwhelmed by a pack of ursas. Chase regained his vision and looked to Pyrrha

"She's two blocks down and getting over-run, you need to get there quickly"

"Alright, keep these people safe"

Chase turned his attention to the civilians and created some illusions at the other side of a building. He then walked towards them to try and cheer them up to make it harder for grimm to find them.

"What are you guys so afraid of, grimm aren't as scary as they are in the stories"

The crowd looked at him confused and then he made his illusions run walk out into the view of the crowd, they all stood back as they saw a wave of grimm and Jaune prepared for a fight. Chase placed his hand on Jaune's shoulder and whispered into his ear

"Don't worry, they aren't real"

He then stood in front of his fake horde of grimm and punched one causing it to disappear. As he turned back the crowd had got a little less afraid.

"See, they are easy to take down, anyone here could do it"

One of the members of the crowd stepped forward and hit a fake Beowulf causing it to disappear. Then slowly others joined in and soon he was out of illusions and the crowd looked relieved. The airship got there to collect the civilians, Chase shook his head at the pilot as he had to help out with Ruby and Pyrrha.


	16. Chapter 16: Love in a Hopeless Place

Chase reached where he sensed Ruby and Pyrrha were to see that Pyrrha was dealing with a pack of Beowulves along with some Ursas while Ruby was pinned down by a King Taijitu, when he turned on his aura sense he could see that she wasn't going to be able to hold it back much longer, then he sensed panic in her and switched back to normal vision to see a Nevermore caught her cape in one of it's feathers. Memories flashed through Chase's head as he recalled Summer Rose's death, he felt his heart sink as he pictured the same happening to Ruby -Not this time, got any ideas- _Yes, though it would use up a considerable amount of aura to fuse_ -Then we better work fast won't we- _Fine, get some earth and energy dust and use your aura to fuse them_ Chase did as he said using his aura sense to help him fuse the two dust crystals properly _If you put some of this in your gauntlet and land a punch on the ground near the King Taijitu it should take down the Nevermore as well_

Chase did as he was told, creating an illusion near the King Taijitu and slamming his fist into the ground just as it prepared to finish off Ruby. At first it looked as if nothing happened but then the two heads of the King Taijitu slammed against the ground and the Nevermore crashed down into it. It had took most of Chase's aura just to activate the dust so he was panting as he ran towards Ruby -What the hell was that?- _Gravity dust, extremely difficult to fuse and to use as it has to increase the gravitational pull around the area _-Shit, you can do that, why doesn't anyone know about this?- _As I said it takes more aura than usual to create so most people assumed earth and energy couldn't be fused_ Chase got to Ruby and ripped the feather off her cloak.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you. What the hell did you just do?"

"I… well… I fused some dust to increase the force of gravity"

"Where did you learn to do that?"

"Dust….inside me…. knows a lot about this stuff""

Pyrrha got over to them after finishing off the grimm around her, seeing the pile of giant grimm she looked towards Chase and he simply waved as she walked towards them

"Why did you leave Jaune to protect the civilians?"

"He and the civilians have been evacuated, I came to help you guys"

"You don't seem to be in any shape to fight"

"I'll be fine, besides it's going to be a while before they send in another ship"

"How long" Ruby said, standing up

"About half a day, they have to refuel and help the civilians before they come back to get us"

"It's nearly night time, we need to find somewhere safe to sleep"

"We could just stay in one of the houses, the amount of grimm should be low enough so that it's safe"

"We should still take turns on watch, just in case"

"I'll take first watch" Ruby volunteered

The three of them took shelter in a house, it had three floors. They decided to stay on the second so that they had time to react to any attacks during the night from the ground as well as from the sky. Ruby sat in the bed beside the window and used her scope to look outside. Pyrrha and Chase took the other two beds to sleep in. Chase stared at the ceiling, thinking back on what he learnt today. The fact that he was able to fuse dust on the move could turn the tides in the fight against grimm and might be able to help expand the walls of the cities. While in mid thought he got tired and went to sleep.

He woke at the sound of a Nevermore outside, when he opened his eyes he saw the clock say '00:13' Ruby should've got him up to take watch, why did he let himself sleep so long. He got up and walked over to where Ruby was sitting, she saw him sit down on the chair opposite her bed.

"You're supposed to let other people take watch"

"It's been two hours already?"

"A little over it, go on I'll take over, you need to rest"

"No, you need the rest more than I do"

Chase looked at her and saw that she was looking at him solemnly.

"What's wrong?"

"That's the second time I've nearly been killed by a grimm, maybe I'm not cut out to be a huntress"

"After all that you've accomplished, why doubt yourself now?"

"After hearing how my mum died from you I couldn't help but think the same was going to happen to me today" She said, tears forming in her eyes at the memory of her mother.

"When I saw you I thought the same thing… I wanted to save you no matter how much aura I had to use, even if I had to throw myself in front of the King Taijitu"

"Chase-"

"After my village was attacked I wanted to become stronger, no matter what, I wanted to become a hunter and help others, I guess in a way this dust infusion helped with that. I got a bit of training from a retired hunter and on my way to Vacuo I found a village under attack. I didn't care that I wasn't trained or that I could die, I charged in to help. There's always a chance that we will die but if we let that stop us then we don't deserve to live-"

Chase was interrupted as Ruby giggling, she then wrapped her arms around him, it was so sudden that he was taken aback, though her warmth was oddly, calming. He returned her embrace.

"Don't just throw in front of death for me, I've already lost one person important to me"

"Don't worry I don't plan on dying quite yet" he said, adding a tone of sarcasm to the end

She pulled away slightly and gave him a mock frown which made Chase laughed a little. She smiled and pulled away completely, moving back to the bed she was sitting on she motioned her hand for him to sit beside her. They kept on talking until Pyrrha woke up and looked at the two. They looked at each other panicked and blushing before going to bed and letting her take watch.


	17. Chapter 17: The Never Ending Plan

Chase opened his eyes and winced at the light that shone from the window, when he turned to get out of the bed he felt a slight tug. He looked around to see Ruby laying on the bed sleeping peacefully, not wanting to wake her quite yet he looked around to see Pyrrha leaning against the wall beside the window, sleeping as well. He just sat a moment to take in how peaceful it was in contrast to what was happening outside -What's happening outside, shit what if grimm got in- His fears were confirmed by loud footsteps from outside the room.

Silently Chase shook Ruby to wake her up, she opened her eyes slowly, groaning. -Why does she have to be so adorable-

"Five more minutes" she said in a tired voice

Chase shook her again this time a littler harder and when her eyes jolted open she looked around in panic. Chase moved a finger to his lip and then motioned to his ear and she listened to the footsteps coming from outside. Chase used his semblance to get beside Pyrrha and wake her up as well, only when she woke they heard voices.

"I could've sworn I saw them come into this building"

Chase was able to recognise the voice as one of the lead scientists who experimented on him. He was so filled with anger that he didn't even notice that he activated his gauntlets but was reminded when Pyrrha put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head at him. Chase decided to put an illusion on the door before they tried to get into the bedroom. The three of them stayed still making sure they didn't make any noise. After a couple moments they heard the door of the house close and saw them leaving the building via the window.

"Who were those guys?"

"I'm not sure about the armed ones but the guy who spoke was on of the lead scientists in the research facility"

"The same research facility that…" Ruby stopped thinking carefully about what she said next

"The very same" Chase sat back down on one of the beds

"You ok" Ruby said walking towards him

"Fine, but they're still here, stopping them at Beacon wasn't enough, they have something else planned"

"What else could they have up their sleeve? You're starting to sound a bit paranoid" Pyrrha said looking concerned

"I think after they let me escape and planned up to the point of murdering Neo I have earned the right to be paranoid about them not having another trick up their sleeve"

"Whatever they're planning we need to get back to Beacon and warn the others. You can't take them on alone" Ruby said sitting beside him

"Who's to say they'll believe me, right now they're just glad it's over and want to keep that peace"

Chase felt a sharp sting on his cheek the moment he finished speaking. As he lightly rubbed his cheek he looked back at Ruby who was looking angrily at him.

"Do you believe that after all this time people won't believe you, after you helped them deal with Ironwood. Ozpin put his job and possibly life on the line by trusting you after you went on a rampage and you want to say they don't trust you"

Chase looked down, feeling guilty and ashamed of what he had said. He had let his anger get the better of him again. -You finally get someone to like you and of course you gotta fuck up immediately-

"You guys sound like a couple, the way Ruby just scolded you"

Chase looked at Pyrrha in surprise and then looked at Ruby who was wearing the same look of shock on her face. Pyrrha looked at them both before replying.

"Wait a minute… you two are… I was just kidding"

"Yeah, it kinda sort of happened last night"

"Well I'm so glad for you two" she said with a hint of sadness

"Don't worry, Jaune can't stay oblivious forever"

"He's certainly giving it his best shot"

"I don't think he's as oblivious as you all think. He just lacks confidence and wonders why you would like him. You gotta be direct"

"Thanks"

"Besides I'm the one you should feel sorry for, what's gonna happen when Yang finds out."

Ruby looked at Chase with genuine fear on her face "She mightn't kill you"

"Thanks for the confidence boost"

"No problem" she said with a smirk

"Anyway we have to get going to get to the Bullhead"

"I nearly forgot about that"

They left the building and headed to the plaza where they hoped that the Bullhead would go to meet up with them. When they got there they saw the people from before clearing the area of grimm.

"Why would they be clearing the grimm away?"

"Probably to make sure they could get out"

"But why leave if they were searching for us?"

They saw a Bullhead land in the plaza and the pilot got out to talk to the lead scientist while his guards kept an eye on the surrounding area for any signs of grimm.

"Guys that's the pilot that picked up Jaune and the civilians"

"Are you sure?"

"Completely, I talked to him before coming to find you guys"

"Then dust knows what's happening to those civilians right now"

"The hell if I'm waiting to find out!"

Ruby grabbed him to pull Chase back "You promised no dying, we need a plan before we walk into there"

"You're right….. we need to keep the pilot and the Bullhead intact if we want to find out where Jaune and the civilians are"

"I don't believe they'll fall for a surrender at this point"

"Not from me they won't, but if they can't see me get on"

"What did I tell you about going in alone"

"Never said I was, Ruby you can use your speed to get on without them noticing?"

"Pfft easy"

"RIght, Pyrrha, we need you to-"

Chase felt a jolt of electricity enter his body, he tried to prevent his body from stopping but he fell to his knees quickly. He saw Ruby and Pyrrha follow him before everything went dark

He woke up sitting in the Bullhead, he saw Ruby and Pyrrha sitting opposite him, awake as he was, he cursed under his breath.

"You guys are persistent, I'll give you that"

"Not persistent we just planned ahead"

"So what you start again with all the civilians you captured and to what to us?"

"Well, you are completely useless now but we can test out new things on your….friends"

"I'd love to see you try, really. You don't have the advantage of being their saviour."

"In due time they'll see us as their heroes but for now we play the part of the villain because it suits us"

"You wouldn't…."

**A/N Sorry for this chapter being a day late but I wasn't happy with what I had for yesterday and had to re-write parts of it, anyway, hope you enjoyed**


	18. Chapter 18: Kept in the Dark

"Are the chains really necessary?"

"They absorb aura, meaning you can't get out of here"

Chase slowly looked around at the grey cell they brought him to then focused his attention onto the guard who was chaining him

"It won't be enough"

The guard looked at him, visibly irritated to which Chase replied with a grin.

"Even if you do get out you'll have to fight with your friends"

Chase's grin dropped and he began to think of a way out, he needed to make sure they didn't have enough time to experiment on anyone. _Well you'll have to go fast but that's not the only reason_ -What other reason is there?- _These chains will drain ALL of your aura, if it goes on too long you'll become a grimm_ -Shit I forgot about that! What if I use my teleporting trick before I run out- _That could work but I have an idea in mind which will use a lot less aura_ -Either way we got to wait until he's gone- _My idea deals with that as well, but you will have to move fast as soon as I'm done _-Fine, just do it-

Chase felt the temperature drop as ice crawled out from his chains and covered the entire room. The guard took notice of what was happening and began to panic, he looked at Chase with horror in his eyes. Chase broke the chains by pulling away and the guard started backing away. He used the dust inside him to trap the guard and crouched down facing him.

"So you want to tell me where you keep the others?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because if you know me then I hate you and your people more than anything and would gladly find out another way" He said causing spikes to appear in the ice

"You're not the one I fear"

"What Ironwood, he's locked up and can't do anything if you give me a little info"

"You think Ironwood was the one in charge here? You don't know anything do you?"

"Then would you mind filling me in" Chase said with a manic grin as he pierced the guard's leg with one of the spikes

"Why don't you go and find out yourself"

"Hmm…... you know what I will." Chase swiftly kicked the guard in the head to knock him unconscious before retracting the ice.

As he left he was greeted by a pitch black room, he decided to turn on his aura sense as his eyes were useless here -May as well know if someone's heading this way- _How is everyone else supposed to maneuver this place?_ -No idea, but I don't think feeling around will help, I need to think of something- _We could try using the ice dust, as it's basically a part of you it should act as another sense_ -But to use it like that would use up a lot of aura- _Trust me this stuff basically uses nothing, using human cell generation I have been able to make some dust inside you so you can control it like an arm_ -Really, you need to tell me the extent of what I can do- _I'd love to if we weren't in a dark room that could be filled with an enemy at any time_ -Fair point-

Chase extended the ice and could 'see' a small area around him, the room he was small and went left of his cell and found a staircase leading further down. He felt an aura coming up the stairs and reflexively created a spike which impaled him against the wall. As he searched the guy he sensed two other people sitting at the bottom of the stairway, he focused in but wasn't able to recognise their aura. As he reached the bottom of the stairs they turned to face him but he froze them to the ground before they had time to react.

"I wouldn't bother screaming for help, they'll just meet the same fate. Now who would like to tell me how you can see in here"

"We don't know what you're talking about"

"Don't play with me, it's pitch black down here"

"Are you sure you're not just blind?"

"Yes I am sure I could see a minute ag… wait why are you so calm?"

"Because you're not getting out of here anyway"

Chase was about to snap at these people but he remained calm, he needed to use their confidence against them somehow.

"Well if I'm going to die anyway would you mind showing me where the others are"

"Love to but we can't move"

Chase retracted the ice keeping them in place and followed their aura as they got deeper into this labyrinth of a place he started to feel something coming from far down, whatever it was it was giving off a heavy, almost terrifying aura.

The two people stopped before what Chase sensed as a door and gestured for him to go in. As soon as he did so he could sense Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune's aura. All of which were running toward him, he was glad to know they were safe until he heard the sound of Crescent Rose switching to scythe form. He barely avoided her initial attack, the speed at which she was moving was hard to track even with his aura sense.

"They already give you the ear implant"

"No, they are fighting you on their own free will" a voice came from somewhere high up

"Why?" was all he was able to say before he was cut of by Jaune who was swinging his sword surprisingly well

"Because you are the enemy"

Chase focused his aura sense to find out how they were being controlled, he felt an overwhelming fear coming from all three of them, when he focused in closer he felt dust inside them. -Do you know anything about this? They seem so afraid but they are still fighting- _Yes, maybe. You just got to get an emotion stronger than their fear_ -What's causing this- _You're gonna find out pretty soon._

Chase heard another gunshot of Crescent Rose and sensed Ruby flying towards him, he stood still in front of her waiting for the strike but it never came, he sensed her standing to the right of him with her blade inches from his throat.

"Hey"

"Why didn't you dodge?"

"Because I knew you wouldn't hit"

"Idiot, what if I killed you"

"Ruby Rose I never thought you would kill me, not for a moment."

Their moment was interrupted by Pyrrha thrusting her Miló at Chase

"How are we supposed to fight them?"

"We just need to make them feel a strong emotion, and it needs to be stronger than what's making them attack us"

"I've got an idea, distract Jaune and when I say bring him to me"

Chase did as Ruby said and got Jaune's attention by punching him in the face, his use of Crocea Mors has improved which is likely the side effect of him being controlled. After avoiding him for a minute Ruby appeared next to him.

"I thought I was supposed to bring Jaune to you"

"Change of plans. DUCK!"

Chase felt Miló nearly scratch his head but stop as soon as it was near Jaune. He could no longer feel the fear coming from either of them.

"Has anyone ever told you that you are a genius?"

"On occasion"

"Jaune I'm so sorry"

"It's fine, really"

"God when are those two going to kiss already"

Both Jaune and Pyrrha turned towards Chase and he just knew that the both of them were blushing right now.

"Someone had to say it"

"Not the time"

Ruby and Chase got back up and Chase searched the surrounding area before looking at them

"So how can you guys see?"

"You can't?"

"I don't think I can" he paused and turned off his aura sense "Nope I can see again"

They giggled at him to which he replied with a frown that turned into a smile. -Is there a way I can get rid of the dust in them?- _Possibly, but you can't dispel it, that dust has to go somewhere_ -Think you can handle it?- _Of course I can_

"Guys come here a second, before moving on there's something important I have to do"

Their expression changed and they looked at him sternly they walked up to him and as they were about to question him Chase placed his hand on Ruby.

-What are you doing?-

-Oh this is interesting I can hear your thoughts, anyway, I'm removing the dust they infused you with-

-When did they infuse me with dust-

-No idea but I was able to sense it coming from the three of you, you got infused wiiiiiith wind. How fitting-

Chase was able to infuse the wind dust in Ruby with his own aura and then he took his hand off her head.

"Your turn next" he said looking at Pyrrha

"Wow wait what?"

"You got infused with dust and I have to get rid of it before you go bat shit crazy"

"Just do it quickly"

"Trust me I don't like doing this either, it's weird feeling other people's aura"

As he placed his hand on her head he could sense the dust straight away, it had reacted with her aura a little more but it hadn't properly fused yet.

-Odd, they gave you energy dust, I was expecting earth since your semblance is polarity-

-I can hear you-

-Yeah, it's kinda awkward-

-How long will this take?-

-That should be the last of it-

When he opened his eyes again Jaune looked terrified at what was about to happen.

"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt that much" he said with a teasing tone

Jaune still refused to let Chase near him. Chase gave a sigh and looked to Ruby and Pyrrha wishing one of them would help

"We could hold him down" Ruby suggested with a playful smile

"No, he could just reject me, he needs to let me in"

"Are you sure I'm infused with dust"

Chase used his aura sense to check Jaune again, he sensed embarrassment but other than that it was normal, he focused in and realised that the earth dust had infused with him already.

"Yes, but beyond my capabilities"

"Great"

"I might not be able to help Jaune but the civilians still need helped"

"First we have to find them"

**A/N I don't know what to say, I remember going to upload my second chapter and seeing 27 people had read it and thinking OMG so many people have have seen this and now this story's at 2500+ views and it's amazing, this story started off as me thinking hey that sounds good, maybe I should write this down and develop it, I am definitely going to write more as I enjoy writing these chapters and apparently people like to read it. Also any feedback at all is much appreciated as I don't really know how to write pairings and this is sort of a blind attempt. See you in the next chapter**


	19. Chapter 19: A Duel with God

"We should split up to search this place for the civilians"

"No, something's off about this place, I'd rather we stuck together"

"Alright, where should we search first?"

"Let me check" Chase used his aura sense to try and find any part of dust but below them but couldn't sense anything past the immense aura emanating from below.

"No idea, there's something coming from below and I can't see past it"

"Then we better work fast"

"They probably kept them lower down, that's what I did to find you guys"

THey exited the room they fought in and headed further down into the labyrinth, as they were approaching the door Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"It's kinda hard to explain but…."

"Yeah I feel it to"

"Fine, I'll get the civilians and you get a way out of here"

They nodded and headed back up the stairs, Chase moved onwards through the increasingly dark and small rooms, most of the cells were either empty or had grimm, silently sobbing to themselves. -Is this how I would've turned out?- _If you ever run out of aura this is what you will become_ -Will I know?- _I don't know_

"Hey is someone there?" Chase heard from the other side of the cell block

He ran towards the source of the sound, ignoring the cells beside him, when he got there he saw a group of civilians in a cell.

"Are you alright?"

"We're fine, I thought you promised everything would be alright. We can hear screaming from further down."

Chase focused on freezing the lock of the door and then used the energy dust from Pyrrha to bust it open causing the door to swing open.

"Run that way" he said pointing towards where he came "Ignore the things in the cell, the others should be there somewhere"

He found another couple of cells, only the people inside them had been infused with dust. As they had no aura he was able to remove it easily, some were tired after being drained of the dust and others fainted. He directed all of them to find Ruby and the others. As he got to the end he found a room with a metallic door blocking it, when he pushed it it opened freely. He found the last of the civilians. -They've just been experimented on, if I do it now it could scar them- _But if we wait you don't know what could happen_ -Ugh, fine- He crouched down and faced them, as he got close they backed away

"It's okay I'm here to help" No response, they were looking at him terrified

"I can undo what they did to you, we also have a way out of here"

Reluctantly they moved towards him as he placed his hand on their head, when he sensed the dust inside him he recognised it as the gravity dust he used back in Vale. -They've started trying new things, greaaaaat- _We can't let them continue, dust like this could kill someone if infused, it puts such a strain on the body_ -What about me, could I take it- _Maybe, but you shouldn't use it_

Chase took the dust out of him and went on to the others, they had weird dust types like light, lava and metal.

He brought them out with him and went up the stairs to see that everyone else had found a hanger and had prepared a ship for leaving. He led the people with him to the chairs at the side of the dropship and walked towards the front to find Ruby and Pyrrha working out the controls.

"How long will it take you guys to get this up and running?"

"At least another twenty minutes"

"I'll keep an eye to make sure no one tries to stop us"

"Alright, just be on the ship when we are leaving"

"I'll keep an illusion on the ship just in case"

He walked out of the ship and felt an overwhelming feeling of dread, when he activated his aura sense he found the source of the powerful aura was heading towards the hanger, he would get here before they could leave -Think I could take him?- _Definitely not, I would advise running_ -You know I can't, even if for a while I have to delay him- _Fine, but you have to be careful, he could take on everyone here if they were all trained hunters and huntresses_

He walked back to the arena and waited for the source to get there, after a couple of minutes the door opened and a man with long, brown hair walked through. He was wearing a black set of plated armour, light enough to let him maneuver freely. He looked at Chase and gave a dismissing grunt.

"Am I not good enough for you?"

"Not even close, but I'll toy with you for a while"

He stood staring at Chase, waiting for him to make the first move, Chase reacted by running towards him, Chase punched him but the guy dodged him with ease, he then unleashed his tail to stab where he dodged to but missed that as well. Chase kept attacking him but he dodged with ease.

"How are you doing this?"

"I am what you humans would call God, you're attacks will not reach me"

"I call bullshit on the whole God thing, but I will admit you are pretty good"

Chase used the ice dust in him and created a flurry of spikes and aimed them at 'God' he was able to avoid them effortlessly. -What the hell is this guy- _Exactly what he claims to be_ -What, even you?- _Well, even if he's not he has the power of one_.

Chase used some of the gravity dust in him to increase the amount of gravitational pull on 'God' after which he created a pool of lava beneath him, the lava went out as soon as it was made but he seemed to still be getting pulled down. He ran up and gave him a right hook, 'God' grabbed his hand and began crushing it.

"FUCK!" he panicked and tried to think of a way to free his hand, he created an ice spike from the ground to impale his arm but he moved it, throwing Chase to the other side of the room. Chase looked up at 'God' who slipped his weapon out of his sleeve, it was a dark red shortsword with a dust chamber at the hilt. Chase tried to get up but the impact of being thrown against the wall caused pain to pulse through him with every movement. 'God' crouched down in front of him and stabbed Chase through the chest.

"Chase we have to go now, the ship's ready"

'God' pulled his sword out of Chase and walked towards the exit towards the hanger. Chase focused on some of the fire dust inside him to create a pillar in front of the door. As he struggled to stand he noticed that a weird aura was infecting his right arm, where the punch had been blocked, it had spread up to his shoulder.

"So you'll die in here for them to escape, how noble of you. Noble and stupid just like Summer Rose"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Did you really think the legendary Summer Rose would die to mere grimm, I was there that night" He said crouching down in front of Chase

"She fought bravely like you, but the story ends the same no matter who"

"Bastard"

'God' drove his sword through Chase's right arm causing another wave of pain to pulse through him.-This is it, where I die, I wish I could've done more-

*"Don't just throw in front of death for me, I've already lost one person important to me"*

Chase focused some energy dust to force 'God' back a bit, just enough room so that he couldn't stop him.

"So at least I know you've been planning this for a while but why me?"

"Because you were the only one in that village who wasn't scared of the grimm"

"I'll talk to you more next time, but right now I got people that want to see me alive"

He swapped placed with the illusion he had placed on the dropship, people around him looked at him shocked. He knew that he had been stabbed twice but they looked at him as if there was something more, when he went to push through them to get to the pilot's cabin he realised what, his right arm was gone. He knocked on the door with his left before passing out.


	20. Chapter 20: The Recovery

*Chase woke up in the room where he fought God, he could see himself standing at the opposite end looking over something. He began walking towards himself and appeared behind him, when he looked down he could see the bodies of team RWBY, just seeing them like this was enough to bring Chase to tears. Hearing footsteps to the right Chase saw a red shortsword and then God, along with a red haired bull faunus, they walked towards Chase and looked at team RWBY before congratulating him. -I did this, I killed them, but I don't remember any of it- **But you did nothing to stop it, you couldn't save them and you never will be able to** -Get out of my head- Then God swiped his sword left and placed his hand on Chase's head, draining all the aura from Chase, he tried to retaliate but his hit's couldn't connect. When all of his aura was drained he felt nothing, then the overwhelming fear spread through him and he began changing, his body turned pitch black while his bones began welding together and moved to form an outer armour. When he finally finished transforming he went blind, all he could sense was the aura of those around him. -This is what happened to me in the labyrinth, wait that aura is Ruby's-*

Chase woke up in the hospital bed and saw Ruby sitting in the seat beside him, she had fallen asleep and didn't notice him. -She looks so peaceful sleeping- For a moment he was at peace but the memory of his dream made him alert again. He went to wake her only to realise that his right arm was missing -Forgot about that, wait you awake in there?- No reply -Shit, do I still have any dust in me?- Yet again, nothing happened -Shit, he did more to me than just taking an arm-

"You're awake" Ruby's said crushing him in a hug

"Thank dust we made it out"

"Well, your… arm didn't"

"Yeah… how long until I'm able to fight again?"

"It's going to be a week before you can stand without the risk of opening that wound, even then you need to go through a physical test before they let you back into Beacon"

"That and I'm going to need some way to fight"

"You still have the dust inside you"

"No, he took that along with my arm. It's so weird, I'm free of it but I had become so reliant on it"

"If you want I can work on a weapon for you"

"I would love to see what type of weapon you'd make me, especially after seeing your previous work" he said looking at Crescent Rose

"Thanks, I'll come by every day to talk to you about what ideas I have and how far it's coming along"

Chase hugged Ruby back "Thanks, that should keep me entertained while I'm stuck in this place"

The door opened as soon as Ruby was leaving to get to work on Chase's new weapon, the rest of team RWBY were standing outside and walked in as soon as she left

"Hey guys, how was Beacon while we were gone?"

"Don't act casually, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, you worry too much. Believe me you should've seen the other guy"

"What did you do to him?"

"Absolutely nothing, that guy is terrifying, I only landed one hit and he threw me against the wall for it"

"You seem to be doing disturbingly well for someone who just lost their arm"

"Well yeah I lost an arm and honestly I'm absolutely terrified of what the enemy will do next. However I was able to learn quite a bit about them while I was there"

"What did you find out that was worth losing an arm?"

"Well, firstly they aren't building a super-powered army, he is infusing people with dust to feed off them. When I saw the civilians they were in cells and starving, not any condition to use their dust"

"What the hell is he?"

"I was getting to that, he is the person that made me, or at least made me who I am. He has the same semblance of dust sense that I do, he was able to manipulate my aura and change it to his. I think he may have many more including being able to see into the future"

"What are we supposed to do against that?"

"Honestly I have no idea, to be on par with him we'd need to be born to fight, more than that we'd need to become a monster like he is."

"Wait if he's using people as food then why did he infuse people like you with dust and teach you to fight?"

"I don't think he knew about us. Ironwood was working alone in that project"

"Maybe Ironwood was trying to retaliate"

"He had to know that we wouldn't be enough to take him down, we'd barely stand a chance"

"How strong is he?"

"Unimaginably"

"I'm sorry but you have to let him rest"

"See you tomorrow"

"See ya"

-How am I supposed to fight him again, I'm basically useless now without the dust which was inside me, not to mention the fact that I am missing an arm- Chase stared at his missing arm for a while before deciding to go to sleep.

*_I told you not to fight him, I told you that you would lose, why didn't you listen_ -Because it didn't matter whether I won or lost he was on his way to stop that evacuation- _But you made his job easier, rather than kill them to absorb their aura and dust he could get it all and more off you, not only that but you also lost me_ -And I would do it again, knowing the consequences because it doesn't matter what happens to us as long as it doesn't to them- _You know that all you've done is delay the inevitable._ -Maybe that delay is what we need to stop him- **It will never be enough to stop him** -And who the hell are you supposed to be?- **I am your fear of him***

Chase woke up and turned to the clock at the side of his bed '02:21' -Sleeping issues as well, fuckin dandy- He grabbed his scroll from the drawer beside his bed and began reading about old hunters and huntresses.

'Name: Tony Rust

Team: TEAL (Disbanded)

Weapon: Finality, a rifle which doubled up as a halberd

Team members

Eunry Hawkins (Deceased)

Auburn Jones

Lavender Thistle (Deceased)'

-No wonder he's sitting out in the desert alone, he lost half of his team, wonder what happened to them- He searched for team TUSK and found their mission reports at which point he got a message on his scroll

'These files are confidential, why are you looking around in them

-Ozpin'

-Shit, well that's enough of that for today- He shut down his scroll and put it back down on the drawer looking at the clock '10:42'. -Well at least it's reasonable for me to be awake now, if only that meant I could do something- He heard the door opening and saw Ruby walk in.

"Good morning sleepy head"

"Hey Ruby, don't you have classes?"

"They gave me and Pyrrha a week off after we came back due to what happened to you"

"Heh, you're welcome"

"Not worth it after they had us checked when we got back"

"Oooh, glad I wasn't conscious for that."

"Anyway I have some ideas for your weapon"

Ruby took the seat beside Chase and took an A1 page out , unfolding it on the bed. Chase ideas. There was drawings of a katar with a pistol hidden where the palm would be and a sickle which had a chain in it allowing it to extend like Gambol Shroud. The one that caught Chase's eye was a hand cannon with a hooked blade that extended from the bottom.

"That one looks cool" he said pointing towards it.

"Okay, I'll work on this one and see what I can add. Oh, another thing, Ozpin asked me to find out what files you were trying to find"

Chase panicked in his bed, he shouldn't have looked into it. -I can tell Ruby she'll understand, maybe leave out the couldn't sleep part-

"I was looking through stories from old Hunters and Huntresses and I found the guy who taught me the basics of fighting and I wanted to find out what happened to his team"

"Did you find anything out?"

"Only that two of them are dead"

"And you don't know what happened to them?"

"That's what I was trying to find whenever Ozpin blocked me"

"Well I'm sure if you ask he will let you, otherwise you could go and ask your old teacher"

"Actually that's a great idea, we should go whenever I can leave this boring bed"

"If you want I can keep you company"

"That would be nice, we haven't had any alone time since we took watch in Vale"

"I don't think that counts"

"Shhh, sure it does"

Ruby giggled at him and said "Alright, I'll allow it"

"Thanks, now onto serious matters are you sure.. you.. love me?"

"What do you mean, of course I do." She said pulling him in for an embrace "You have to stop doubting people"

"It's not that, it's just. Why?"

"You don't think about yourself most of the time, I'm guessing you knew that you would lose against that guy back in Labyrinth but you still fought to save everyone. It's also because you're alone and I know what it's like to feel like there's no one who cares about you but I do and so does everyone else"

Chase was fighting back tears and he was just able to mutter "Thank you"

RUby's scroll went off, she looked at the message and then turned to Chase.

"I have to go for now but I'll be back"

"Okay"

Ruby left and Chase lingered on what she had said. -She's so kind to everyone, the exact opposite of Ironwood, speaking of which I need to talk to him- Chase grabbed his scroll and called Ozpin

"And how is our patient"

"I need to see Ironwood, it's urgent"

"I'm afraid you can't leave your hospital bed for another couple of days"

"Then is there any chance he can be sent up here?"

"I'll see what I can do"

Chase placed the scroll back down and sighed. -They could at least have something for patients to do while they sit here- He picked up his scroll and checked the news from the other kingdoms, most of it was about them sending help to aid Vale in it's moment of need but he was able to find an article talking about the upcoming tournament. -Oh we are so winning this- he read the details to find out that you needed a team and to be representing a school to enter. -Dammit, maybe if they let the other mercenaries become hunters I could join one of their teams-

The door opened and General Ironwood entered followed by two guards who had guns trained on him the entire time.

"It's okay you can leave him with me"

They looked at Chase and replied "We'll be waiting outside" as they reluctantly left.

"What a pleasure to see you, I can see that our little skirmish hurt you as much as it did me"

"Oh this" he said pointing to his stub "That wasn't you, I had an encounter with your higher up"

Ironwood looked at him in horror "And this is all you came out with?"

"You look at me as if I should be dead"

"You should be, most people freeze in fear by merely being in the same room as him"

"I guess that means your little experiment worked"

"What do you mean?"

"I know that you were planning on taking him down, my only question is what you expected to do with only so few of us"

"There's an old hunter's tale, more of a myth. When humanity was first being attacked by the grimm we were almost wiped out if not for the discovery of dust"

"That's no tale, it's history"

"Let me continue. Anyway most men were happy with what they were able to do with dust but one man didn't think it was enough, he needed more and thus infused himself with dust. It is said that he gained great power and went on to infuse himself with every kind of dust he could find to get more power. As far as the story goes he went insane with power and became unable to contain it, one day he exploded in a multitude of elements which caused new kinds of dust to appear where he died"

"Are you suggesting he is that man"

"No but he desperately wants to be, he is doing whatever he can to get more dust. His name was Eunry Hawkins until he was left behind on a mission, having to survive in the wild against grimm caused him to do anything to survive, I encountered him on a simple extermination mission and he gained control of me, he sent me out to find unique dust, which I did. I found a special kind which appeared to have an aura around it, I hoped that if I could infuse it to someone they'd be able to use it against him"

"So you infused me with it. Well unfortunately he has it now, in my encounter with him I lost my arm along with every piece of dust in me"

"Then I'm afraid he has won"

"Is that all you can tell me?" Chase said irritated at Ironwood's response

"That is all I know of him"

"That's all I wanted to know, you still have to serve jail time for what you did even with your intentions"

Ironwood left and the guards escorted him back to his cell. -He may have took a piece of me but I think that he may have problems absorbing it- The door opened and Cinder walked in along with Shu.

"Well, we heard that you have a girlfriend"

Chase backed up on his bed frightened at what they were going to say

"It's true, you like Ruby"

"How did you guys find out?"

"A certain Yang overheard your conversation with Ruby earlier today"

"Well I'm fucked, how did Yang react?"

"She wants a duel when you leave the hospital"

"Greaaat"

**A/N Yes I know this one's two days late, however I wanted to build tension after the last one and as compensation this chapter is about as long as two chapters. That and I had a bit of difficulty writing parts of this**


	21. Chapter 21: Back in the Game

It was only two days left until Chase would be released from the hospital and would have to have a duel with Yang. While he wasn't to afraid of the fight he knew that he wouldn't do as well with only one arm.-All I have to do is get her aura down to the red, I'll have to do it quickly as her semblance would make a long drawn out fight unwinnable. I guess I shouldn't be making any strategies until Ruby finishes my weapon- Ozpin walked into the room disrupting his train of thought.

"Professor, I was wondering when you'd pay a visit"

"Well I wanted to make sure you were feeling better before I got to the unpleasant part"

"You want to know about my fight…."

"Yes, from what I've heard from Ironwood he poses a great threat, however I wanted to know if there's anything you can tell me about him"

"He has the same semblance as I do, he was able to manipulate the aura on my right arm… infecting it. Other than that I'm not sure if he intended to kill me"

"What did he do to make you believe that?"

"When my village was attacked by grimm he was there, that and he didn't stab me in any vital places"

"He took your right arm"

"Not exactly, when I switched places with my illusion the aura around my arm wasn't mine so I couldn't move it"

"So you took your own arm"

"Seems like a fair trade to me. Whatever he's planning it has been in motion for years, there's someone I need to see. His old partner"

"You know who he is?"

"Well if what Ironwood said is right then he used to be a part of team TEAL and I was trained by the leader"

"Very well, I will allow you to take a trip along with the rest of team RWBY during the next half term"

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee before leaving, Chase was relieved that the trip had been approved. -Well that's one thing, hopefully Tony will be able to tell us something we can use against him- He went back to thinking about his fight with Yang until something struck him.

"Dammit I am an idiot" he shouted aloud causing the nurse to walk into the room to check on him

"I'm fine, just thinking out loud" he reassured her and she left shortly

He went to use the dust that had been made by his cells and was able to create a small amount of ice appear in his left hand, he got rid of it and tried to remember how his dust was able to make it. After about an hour of failed attempts he was able to create dust using cell division. Proud with himself he sat back only to sit forward again when Ruby walked in.

"Ruby, I have an idea for a weapon"

"What is it?"

"Is it possible to make a bow which can be turned into two curved shortswords?"

Ruby stared at him as if his time inside the hospital had turned him insane. She slowly took the seat beside his bed and placed her hand on his arm with a worried look.

"You do know you need two arms to operate a bow right?"

"I know, I've got that covered"

"What do you mean you have it covered, unless you are staging a rescue mission for your arm"

"The dust inside me was able to make more dust by using the human body's cells to make more, theoretically I should be able to use that dust to make a temporary arm"

"I thought you said you had no more dust in you"

"I thought I did but I forgot about the dust that he made, after a couple failed attempts I was able to use it and make more"

"That sounds kinda dangerous"

"Relax, there aren't any side effects, yet" he whispered the last part under his breath

"Ok, but what about arrows, you won't be able to buy any because everyone uses bullets"

"Well I can make some arrows with dust but I will make some whenever I get out of this hospital"

"Alright I'll get to work on it, should be done by the time you get out of here"

"Thanks, luckily it will be ready for Yang"

Ruby left and Chase decided to get some sleep

*"You're just like me you know"

Chase looked for the source of the voice but he could already tell who it was

"I am nothing like you"

"Really, then it's just a coincidence that we have the same semblance, face it"

"NO, I am nothing like you"

"Denying it won't get you anywhere, accepting it on the other hand could get you unimaginable power."

"I don't care how much power you can give me I will not help you"

"Such a shame, I might've considered letting little red live if you did"

"Don't worry I won't let you live long enough to get near her"

"Who's to say I'm not already"

"I swear to fuck I will kill you if you try anything"

"Because that went so well last time"

"Just you wait, I'm gonna enjoy hunting you down"*

Chase was forced awake by a strong push on his shoulder, when he opened his eyes he could see Ozpin, Ironwood and Glynda surrounding his bed, he sat up and looked at them expectantly.

"Our teams have come back from clearing the city, it is now safe enough for the civilians to go back"

"You didn't all need to come here to tell me that"

James took a step forward and spoke "Well, we wanted to start with the good news."

"James has come up with a way to combat God, if he can find other fragments of dust with aura we could make someone who has enough power to stand up to him"

"I'll do it, no one else knows how to deal with that sort of dust, besides I want to repay him for taking my arm"

"However infusing a person with dust is illegal in the four kingdoms along with the fact that Ironwood is not allowed to leave the premises and if he did he would be hunted down with high priority"

"So you need someone to leave and find the dust as well…. such a person wouldn't be able to come here in case Beacon was associated with infusing dust. I'd have to leave and not come back"

"I will give you to the end of the Vytal festival to decide, you are not to tell anyone about this. If you decline we will find someone else to do it"

"Understood"

They left and allowed Chase to get back to sleep, though with such a choice he stayed up all night debating what to do. -I can't just leave everyone here. I can't just leave Ruby, but if I don't someone else will have to. If I don't then God will have the upperhand, It's best to wait until the end of the festival so I can think about it more.

The next day was pretty uneventful as everyone that came to visit him either told him he could take Yang or acted as if he was dead already. He was able to get to sleep at the end of it and luckily no bad dreams.

He got up and saw Ruby standing at the door with a bow in her right hand, she sat down next to him and placed the bow on his legs.

"Good luck today"

"Pfft, luck. Trust me I've got this"

"I'm just afraid she'll go a little overboard"

She looked at him with genuine worry, he replied by pulling her in for a kiss and then pulled away and looked her in the eyes. She stared back at him astonished.

"I'll be fine, don't worry"

She went in for another kiss, this one lasted longer and was more passionate, this time she pulled back and gave him a hug.

"Just don't win too hard"

The nurse ushered her out before getting Chase out of bed and bringing him to the area where the physical tests took place. After going through the measurement like height, weight and blood pressure she moved on to a reaction test. However as he was a hunter this test was ramped up to test him. She pulled out a testing robot and activated it, moving away to give them enough space.

"All you have to do is avoid his hits"

The robot started with a few slugs at Chase which he sidestepped with ease, after about half a minute he started getting faster to the point where Chase had to put thought into every movement, however as before he was able to dodge easily. The difficulty was ramped up again as it began to throw punches almost simultaneously. Chase dodged some attacks with great difficulty having to use his arm to deflect a few attacks. After he finally was punched he was surprised at how little it hurt.

"Alright, you are in shape to resume being a hunter, go to reception with these papers and they should dismiss you."

He took the file off her and left, grabbing his clothes he switched into them before heading to the reception. When he was finally dismissed he sent a message to Yang on his scroll.

'When do you have the arena booked for?'

He hadn't even got out of the hospital when he got a response

'It's free all day, be there in about 10 minutes'

He made his way to the arena, he knew that she had been training all week for this fight but wasn't about to let her win that easily. He pulled out his bow and decided to name it while on the way to the arena, he decided on Gelida Furore. He walked into the prep room and went through every fight he had seen with Yang and tried to think of any weakness. -If I can get in a good counter then maybe I can land enough hits to put her in the red immediately-

Chase walked out into the arena and saw Yang standing at the other side grinning at him, when he looked to the seats he could see team JNPR, the rest of team RWBY and all of the mercenaries watching eagerly. He created an arm out of ice dust and the buzzer went off signaling the match had begun.

Yang fired some shots right off the bat but Chase swiftly countered firing arrows to detonate the explosive rounds mid-air. She used the smoke to her advantage and jumped in closing the distance between them, she threw a right hook. Chase froze in terror and was launched across the arena. She walked slowly towards him and his vision became distorted, instead of Yang he saw God. He couldn't move, only watch as she got closer, she lifted him and punched him again, this time straight in the stomach. She then threw him at the ground and punched him again. He knew his aura was in the red as he was using it to completely block her attacks. Blake got up to stop the fight but Chase lifted his hand to tell her not to intervene. -I need to get over this, no matter how painful-

"Move dammit" he shouted

Yang lifted him one more time, he knew that after this he would be completely out of aura. The images of everyone's dead body flashed through his head. -NO, I am going to beat him, I am not going to lose this easily- He aimed his bow at Yang's knee and fired causing her to stagger back slightly and her grip on his dropped. He switched his bow to it's dual curved swords and prepared for her assault. She dashed at him and gave out a flurry of punches, after a while of dodging and deflecting he noticed a pattern in her movements along with a gap. He waited for her to punch and parried it with both his blades, she saw his gap in defence and went for a jab. Chase anticipated it and created a tail to block her attack, he then kicked her in the stomach which caused her to back step, Chase replied by swinging his blades at her which quickly caused her aura to go down. As soon as she regained her stance Chase flipped backwards changing his curved swords back into a bow as he fired a couple shots at her. She blocked them all and ran in to attack. He sheathed his bow and grabbed her arm pulling her closer with one hand and with the other he focused almost all of his aura into a punch that he aimed straight for her face, causing her to completely run out of aura.


	22. Chapter 22: Upping the Ante

Chase was waiting at the entrance of Beacon, Ozpin had called for an assembly for all students as well as the mercenaries and made it known that it was urgent. He was there with Cinder and Shu who were pondering what it was about, he tuned out of what they were saying after their theories became a bit off. Ozpin finally took his place on the raised platform and looked at everyone intensely before speaking into his microphone.

"As all of you know this year has taken a few unexpected turns with the events of the white fang and the attempted takeover of this very academy"

He went silent as everyone began talking about the events and what he was going to do with all of the mercenaries, Chase turned around to Cinder and Shu who were looking at him with concerned faces.

"What do you think he'll do?"

"Well he was willing to take me in even though I had dust infused in me"

"Yeah, but you didn't try to take over the school"

Ozpin cleared his throat into the microphone which caused a deafening silence all around the entrance, after another pause he spoke up.

"Now I know many of you may not trust these people, others will still hold them accountable for the many civilian lives lost in the second breach of Vale, however they were being controlled through an implant in their brain, if they were not as worn out from the battle as we were I am sure that they would have been on the forefront in helping the civilians their associate James Ironwood placed in danger and some did go out to help. I think it only fair that we give them a chance."

Cinder and Shu were hardly able contain their excitement that they were being invited into Beacon, to be able to help others as a future Huntress and Hunter. Chase turned to them giving them a smile that said 'I told you so'. However their victory was short lived as he could hear other students booing at the idea. Chase stared at all the students booing before the spotlight landed on him.

"I thought many of you would react like that, therefore how about we hear about whether or not they should be allowed to join by the one person here who has the most reason to hate them"

Chase slowly and nervously walked up to the stage, staring maliciously at Ozpin for putting such pressure on him. As he stood before the other students of Beacon he began to feel warmer, he could feel each individual stare on him and it felt as if each was a laser burning through him. He took a deep breath in before speaking to calm his nerves.

"I'm not the best at giving speeches, as you all are about to find out." He started with, trying to lighten the mood but to no avail

"I know how you feel about trusting the mercenaries, believe me I had to live with them for years, and have a few unfair fights, however I was in the same position as them. None of us joined the experimentation by our own choice, because I can tell you now if they had the choice to join Beacon as you did they would've much preferred it. The process that we went through was torture, made worse for me as my ice dust turned into a tail gaining me the name 'monster' I can understand your distrust and hatred for them because of what you thought they did, but they didn't know about the second breach, I know none of them would want grimm to attack Vale as we all have seen our villages burnt by wild grimm attacks"

Chase paused to think of what he was going to say next. As he did so he could hear murmuring around him, he looked to Shu who was giving him a worried face, he immediately knew what to say next.

"I know I can't ask you to trust them with just a sad story of their past, nor am I asking any of you to. Trust is something that must be earnt. I am merely asking you to give them a chance, a chance to prove to you that they are just as loyal and good-natured as most of you are. I cannot account for all of them being a helpful addition to this school, however I can tell you that every single one of them is just as willing to fight any enemy of Mankind and Faunus alike just as much as you are. Especially hunting grimm, they would take any chance to do that"

Chase stepped away from the microphone and looked to Ozpin before walking off the stage and back into the crowd. Ozpin took to the microphone with a playful smile in response to the unchanged attitude of the crowd.

"I don't wish to bring in the mercenaries if they will just be excluded and treated badly by other students, however after hearing Chase's speech and thinking it over I am willing to come to a compromise. I will enter a team of mercenaries to the Vytal festival tournament, whoever takes first place in the tournament will be allowed to decide on this matter"

Ozpin left the entrance area and left the crowd discussing the matter of allowing the mercenaries in, Chase made his way through the crowd to find the other mercs. When he found them he could see Shu had a calculating look on him.

"Well that went better than expected"

"What do you mean, half the crowd doesn't want us here"

"But we have a chance, all we have to do is win the Vytal tournament"

"He said we could only enter one team, that means we have to decide on the four best fighters here"

"That explains your look. Well based on the training fights we had I think it's clear that I am going to be one of the four"

"No, since you left and were accepted into the school they'll probably enter you with one of the teams"

"Hmm, then out of everyone here I would say the four best are you, Cinder, Lapiz and Topaz"

"Yeah, if only we had Neo, she was a better fighter than all of us"

"Can we not mention the dead mercenaries" Chase replied somberly

"Sorry"

Chase left the mercenaries as they headed to Ozpin's office to tell him the team that they had chosen. He on the other hand began his walk to the team RWBY dorm to see what they thought of Ozpin's decision. Before he even walked in he could hear a heated discussion taking place, he stood still for a moment to hear what it was about.

"I don't care I still don't trust him" he could hear Yang shouting

"He saved us when we were in the Labyrinth, what will it take for you to trust him" Ruby weakly replied

-Oh shit, it's about me. Should I go in, of course I should. I need to be there to defend myself- He walked into the dorm and everyone went silent, all eyes on him.

"You don't need to pretend as if nothing happened I heard the argument before I walked in"


	23. Chapter 23: The Vytal Festival

"Well you haven't given us much reason to trust you, we know nothing about you other than the fact that you worked for Ironwood and your village was attacked when you were young. How the hell are we supposed to trust you!" Yang shouted, her eyes turning red.

"Well I don't expect you to trust me, it's something I have to earn but at least give me a chance to prove I can be trusted rather than assuming the worst"

"I was willing to give you a chance until you were inches away from killing me on the train"

"That wasn't me though, I simply wanted to knock you out so I didn't look suspicious, my more psychotic side took over when I had won"

"Well then why didn't you let this more psychotic side fight me in the arena"

"Because he's gone. Whenever I fought God he took the dust which was implanted in me, which includes the voice in my head telling me to kill you"

"How convenient"

"Not really, because the real enemy here now has another fucking semblance. Making him that much closer to unstoppable"

"And it just so happens that you are the only one who saw this 'God'"

"Actually I'm not. Whenever I found Ruby and the others in the Labyrinth they were being controlled by him, I could sense his aura taking control of them"

Yang sharply turned to Ruby, lightening her gaze, waiting for a response to confirm what Chase said.

"After being knocked out the next thing I remember is standing in front of you with Crescent Rose inches from you"

"So you don't remember anything about this 'God'"

Chase snapped at Yang "Do you think I took off my right arm just for fun, to make you all believe in some imaginary person so I could gain my trust and what…. kill you all in your sleep"

"Pretty much, from your actions you haven't given me much reason to believe otherwise"

"Alright that's about enough" Blake said calmly "Yang he sacrificed himself when Ironwood attacked Beacon to save the other mercenaries, Penny and make sure Ironwood didn't escape. Even though he had a severe lack of aura he went into Vale and helped with the evacuation efforts. Give him one more chance"

Yang's eyes returned to their lilac colour, she gave him a hostile stare before turning to Blake.

"One chance, if he screws up then-"

"I'm not going to do anything"

Yang ignored the interruption and continued "I'm not holding back"

Silence fell on the room as even though the problem had been resolved there was still tension between Yang and Chase. Weiss was the one to break the silence.

"Have you all signed up for the Vytal festival tournament"

The tension soon turned to panic as Ruby, Yang and Chase realised that they had put off signing up, Blake and Weiss looked at each other before turning to the three. -Well obviously they didn't forget, knowing Weiss she did it on the first day available-

"Well, the registration ends today, besides while we're out we can enjoy the Vytal festival"

Everyone agreed, Chase left the dorm to allow team RWBY to get ready for their trip to Vale while Chase checked the team JNPR dorm to see if they were there, he opened the door to find the room empty, taking the opportunity he went into their bathroom and got changed into a dark blue coat and some jeans. He made his way to the airship port and waited for the others to arrive. First was Weiss, followed by Ruby, Blake and lastly Yang. The ride to Vale was silent, Ruby tried to bring up a conversation a few times but failed.

Whenever they reached Vale the team was lively at the thought of competing in the competition. Weiss, Blake and Chase were reluctant to reveal anything that they planned incase they went up against each other or someone heard them so Yang and Ruby dominated the conversation.

"Well at the least we have information on the fighting styles of everyone from Beacon, as well as Sun and Neptune" Weiss mentioned

"Come to think of it we haven't met the rest of team SSSN" Chase replied

"I think the other two are called Scarlet and Sage"

"Well one of us is bound to face off against them"

"Hopefully we can see how they fight before we end up being pitted against them"

"Do you think they'll let me use my dust in the tournament"

"Well technically there isn't a rule against it, but I would leave it as a last resort"

"Probably a good idea"

"Is your bow not good enough by itself" Ruby said teasingly

"It is, but what if someone tries to sabotage it, I need options"

"You seem a little paranoid"

"Nothing wrong with having a back up"

They finally reached the arena, Weiss and Blake waited outside as the Chase, Ruby and Yang went in to get registered. There were single rooms filled with a computer which was set up with the form for entering the competition. While it was basic it asked for all the details needed to set up the arena for the user. Name, Team, Nation of Origin, School you are attending, Weapon as well as a description, Semblance with an explanation and whether or not you use dust. Chase filled his in up until the last question and hesitated. -Technically if I say no and my dust goes off then I could be disqualified, but if they give me dust at the beginning of the match then I won't need it- He decided to fill in yes and submitted it. When he left he could see the others were looking at him impatiently. -I think I may have taken a little too long on the last question-

"So that's us registered"

"Well we have to go through a qualifier round, other than that yes"

"Pfft, come on. Who here isn't going to make it through the qualifiers"

"You'd be surprised, you might get unlucky with someone who counters you well"

"Well then we should prepare for it in Beacon"

"The tournament begins in a week, we won't have much time to practice"

"Most people will be using Beacon's arena for practice, where should we go?"

Before she could answer Ruby's stomach gave out an audible groan. Chase laughed a little, stopping when Ruby stared at him angrily.

"I guess that means we should get something to eat before deciding anything else"

"I know a good restaurant around here, it does food from Vacuo"

"That means spicy, I'm in"

It was a short walk to the restaurant Yang had suggested, when they got there Chase ordered the spiciest thing on the menu, taking the challenge Yang decided to do so as well.

"Last one to finish has to do to one thing the other tells them to" Yang stated the terms of their bet.

"Oh you're on, just don't back down when you lose"

"Ha, I'm not one to back down from an easy win"

As soon as they were served their meal Chase and Yang dug into their food which resembled lava, the sauce was still bubbling and they could feel the heat before the plates were even placed on their table. Chase gulped trying to make it as quiet as possible, Yang saw it and gave him a menacing look.

"You can always cower out, but if you do I get to tell you to do two things"

"Ha, give up."

Reluctantly he dug in trying to chew and swallow as quickly as possible so that he could finish most of it before the spice kicked in. His tactic failed as his mouth was on fire at the first bite. He endured the flaming sensation and pressed on, finishing half of it before having to stop for a moment, he looked at Yang's plate and saw she was nearly three quarters of the way through, seemingly unaffected by the spice. He ignored his seething pain and quickly caught up to Yang, finishing moments before her.

"I win, that mean I get to-" he stopped as he quickly poured the contents of his glass into his mouth to ease the pain "-Make you do one thing for me"

"Get it over with already" Yang said disappointed

"Oh no, I'm going to wait for the perfect moment, I'm not wasting it now"

The five of them caught the airship back to Beacon and turned in, Chase having to find a place to sleep in the assembly hall being used as a temporary shelter for the mercenaries.


	24. Chapter 24: Let the Tournament Begin

**A/N: This chapter is up a little late, however I had a ton of work for school yesterday as well as having to study for the upcoming exams, I will try and get ahead in my writing so that I don't have to upload chapters late but anyway, enjoy this, the beginning of the Tournament**

Chase stood still taking a moment to calm his thoughts and try and get any information he could about his opponent. He was wearing heavy armour but Chase made sure not to underestimate his maneuverability just in case it was a facade. His opponent made it very obvious he was heavy and slow by flaunting about his hammer.

*"Never dive straight into battle, you always want your opponent to make the first move" Pyrrha began

After Ruby suggested training with team JNPR Pyrrha offered to help everyone out by telling them how to handle someone who competes in a lot of tournaments.

"But you shouldn't give the opponent time to think"

"Your opponent doesn't need time to think, most professionals will know a lot about you simply from how you start a match, never let them know more than they need to"*

-From what I read on this guy he has won quite a few competitions, he obviously wants me to assume he's slow and heavy and that I should initiate. I don't believe he will start anything, if I let in a couple test hits to determine how he fights. Of course-

*"If the opponent will not make the first move then you'll have to take an action with little risk and try not to tell them anything, the lucky thing about you is that none of your fights are televised so few people know your fighting style"*

Chase broke into a sprint towards the enemy, creating an illusion just centimetres in front of him, whenever his opponent was within range he pulled a sword out of the hammer's handle and swung it at Chase, with what little time he had to react he got into a stance to make it look like he backstepped as soon as the illusion disappeared. He took out Gelida Furore in it's short sword form.

"I'm surprised, a lot of people don't make it this far"

"Well I wanted to have a little fun before I beat you" Chase replied with a grin

His opponent gave him a sly smirk in reply before charging him and switching his sword back into a hammer. Yet again Chase created an illusion that was only inches in front of him so that no one would notice when it dissipated. As his opponent recovered from the swing Chase switched Gelida Furore to it's bow form and fired an arrow with fire dust at the tip, it caused the handle of the hammer to heat up and his opponent to drop his hammer completely. Chase switched back to sword form and dashed in, comboing attacks with his dual, curved short swords, however his opponents armour tanked most of the damage to his aura and he was just able to shove Chase off. He looked to the board and saw he had knocked his aura just into the yellow.

"You can take a hit, just can't dish one"

*"Never get too cocky, this one is a given but if you are doing well in a match most people tend to forget this"*

-I have been doing the best so far but he hasn't shown me his semblance yet, if he has one, otherwise he will win in a fight of endurance if I don't remove the armour. I doubt he'll give away his semblance in the qualifying match-

"I love how confident you people are, it makes this a lot easier."

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"You are still calm even though you haven't landed a hit and other than your weapon you haven't revealed much about your fighting style"

"That's because I don't need to do so to some unnamed competitor"

-No, don't get angry… yet. If I can make him stumble backwards I should be able to knock him out for a bit- Chase waited for his opponent to make a move but he stood there, watching. Chase noticed his sly smirk then noticed the slight signs of fatigue fading, he positioned himself to where he could see the board without giving away the fact that he was looking and his fears were confirmed, his aura went back to the green. -But only while he's stood still-

Chase dashed in to attack his opponent who swung horizontally with his hammer, anticipating this he ducked under the hammer and focused his aura into his shoulder and shoved him, causing him to stumble a little. Chase took his opportunity and shot a fire arrow at his opponent's feet, using his aura to make it explode. He then quickly grabbed another arrow to shoot at his opponent but his heavy armour was lying like an empty shell. -Shit, he's gonna move a lot faster, aura sense would let me keep up with him but people would notice my eye go weird, unless.-

Chase was interrupted as a hit from the side knocked him to the ground, he turned to his opponent who drew his blade from his hammer.

"I've got to hand it to you, you made me get rid of the heavy armour"

-An illusion at this distance would be noticed easily, I'm going to have to take the hit- His opponent stabbed at Chase's face, Chase moved his head to the side slightly, his opponent's sword grazing his left eye. Not enough to do permanent damage, but the blood would render it useless for the match. Chase turned on his aura sense, and was suddenly able to keep up with his opponents movements, he was able to pick up on the fear that his opponent felt, not of him but of what would happen if he lost. A fear that was driving him.

Chase rolled right as his opponent brought his hammer down on him. He got back on his feet and with barely enough time to dodge the incoming attack. However he was able to make up for it by focusing aura into his blades and countering with enough force to knock his opponent into the red, winning the match.

Chase walked back to his side and into the preparation room, a medical team was waiting to examine his eye, he assured them that it was fine, the eye itself wasn't damaged. They agreed after checking him and simply patched up where the blade had made contact. Chase made his way into the audience to find where the rest of his team were sitting.

"Why didn't you block that attack, you had more than enough aura" Ruby shouted

"I needed to use my aura sense to keep up with that guy, if I made it look like I couldn't use my eye no one would notice when it went weird"

"What if something had went wrong?"

"I had enough aura around my actual eye to block a direct attack, besides against him I needed to take a risk if I were to get anywhere"

He could hear loud footsteps from behind him and his opponent stood before him, only without the armour or hammer. He placed his hand out and Chase returned the gesture with a friendly smile.

"That was a good match, sorry about the insult but usually mental games save me from having to reveal too much. May I ask how you won?"

"Well even though you can move really fast your reaction timing is horrendous, every time you take a swing it takes too long for you to recover"

"Thank you, I look forward to a rematch when I get better"

"As do I, hopefully next time you pose more of a challenge" he said with a slight mocking tone causing the boy to frown at him before smiling and leaving them to sit with his team."

"Where are team JNPR?"

"Well Pyrrha and Ren's fights are still on, Jaune was knocked out so badly that he is in the hospital and Nora is having a talk with the officiators about whether she went a little overboard"

"You use the terms talk and little very loosely"


	25. Chapter 25: The Forever Fall

"So how did you're talk go?" Chase asked with a smirk as Nora sat down at their lunch table

She simply gave him a death stare to which he backed down and returned to eating. The others were hesitant to annoy any further in this state. Only Ren was brave enough to say something.

"If it's any consolation I didn't make it through either"

Nora looked at him with shock, everyone had thought he'd have made it to the semi-finals but his opponent was nearly impossible to keep track of and they hit pretty hard as well. Luckily Chase wouldn't have to face him unless they both made it to the quarterfinals but Weiss on the other hand would face him in the next match. She had been rewatching Ren's match to try and find a weakness.

"That makes Pyrrha the last member of JNPR in the tournament"

"Where is Pyrrha?"

"She was here a moment ago, probably went to train. Who's she facing up against?"

Ruby pulled out her scroll, she had the tournament listings open already and scrolled through it for a moment before finding Pyrrha.

"Flash, the guy that you faced against Chase"

"I thought he was put out, I beat him"

"Since no one in Nora's match was able to participate in the tournament they had to take someone who lost."

"Guess he was the most qualified."

"Maybe you could help her make a strategy against him, since you fought him"

"Yeah, we still meeting up in Vale"

"Yeah, meet me at the airship dock at 4" she said, blushing at the fact that the others were staring at them

"Yes we are going out, get over it"

Ruby stared at him, annoyed that he was leaving him with their friends who were most likely going to interrogate her. He gave an innocent shrug and mouth 'I'm sorry' before leaving to find Pyrrha.

He checked the training ground, the arena and even their room but couldn't find Pyrrha in any of them. -Maybe the stress finally got to her, being worshipped as a champion, but where could she have went.- He checked his scroll for the airship timetable but none Left Beacon until the one at half four he and Ruby were getting. -The roof, she trains with Jaune up there- He pushed the door open to the rooftop and peered out, seeing Pyrrha sit at the edge of the roof. Staring into the distance.

"What's got you so worried?" He asked startling Pyrrha as he used his semblance to teleport beside her.

"Oh, it's nothing"

Chase took a seat at the edge of the roof beside Pyrrha and joined her in staring out into the distance for a minute or two before speaking again.

"It's something to do with Jaune, isn't it"

"Nonono, I think he's actually starting to realise that I have.. feelings for him"

"Something's got you down, but why now? Most of your team got knocked out of the tournament so you feel a lot of pressure on you?"

"Not that either, I'm used to the pressure of a tournament."

"Well then what is it? You can trust me"

"Jaune's thinking of leaving Beacon"

"WHAT? WHY?" He tried to keep quiet enough so that no one would rush up to the roof

"He doesn't think he's good enough, piled with the fact that he's afraid he'll accidentally use the dust in him and hurt someone"

"Well if that's what he's worried about the mercenaries can help teach him to control it"

"I was wondering if you would help him as you seem to know the most about it"

"I would love to but-"

"What is it, but what?"

-But I don't know if I'll be here long enough to help him control it, I can't tell her that. What if I tell her that the dust that was infused in me was different, I'm not lying-

"The dust they infused in me already had an aura, the way I experienced it was completely different that what they did"

"Alright"

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more, but I could talk to one of the mercs that would be happy to help"

"Thank you"

"Anyway" He said, trying to lighten the mood "I heard you're facing off against Flash tomorrow in the tournament"

"Yeah, you faced him in the qualifiers"

"That's why I came up here, to give you tips on fighting him"

"That would be nice actually, I've never faced him in a tournament before"

"Well, his armour makes it difficult to deal any real damage to his aura but if he gets rid of it the fight will get a lot more difficult cause he moves almost as fast as Ruby"

"Then how do I get any real hits in on him?"

"After he attacks it takes him a while to recover and attack again, he needs to land the hit on you, this is where your semblance could come in handy."

"What about his weapon?"

"It's a giant hammer, but he can pull the hilt out into a longsword"

"Thanks, I'll be able to take him down easily with this information. What is his semblance?"

"Not sure if it's his semblance or not but if he stands still he regains aura"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, the bastard got back into the green after I knocked him into the yellow"

Chase got up and checked his scroll '3:50' -Shit, I have to get to the docks quickly- He rushed towards the door but decided on a way down. He ran back to the ledge where Pyrrha was sitting and aimed an illusion at the ground, switching places with it. He then ran to the Dock just about making it.

"Hey Ruby"

She got off the bench she was waiting at and together they walked towards the ticket booth. Chase paid for both the tickets as he was the one who had planned this date. He was glad Ruby had suggested they get there half an hour early as it took them about twenty minutes to get to the waiting area.

"So what have you planned for us this evening?"

"That's a surprise." He said, bringing her in for a hug as she began to pout "I don't think I messed it up that bad"

She placed her head on his shoulder and they sat in silence until the announcement came for them to board their airship. Once they were on the airship Ruby started guessing what sort of romantic thing Chase would've planned for them, while none of what he had actually planned was on the list he knew she would still enjoy it.

Once they landed Chase called up a taxi and handed the driver a piece of paper as to not spoil the surprise until they got there. As soon as the taxi stopped Ruby's eyes lit up as they were dropped off at the forever fall.

"How did you get us into here, it's supposed to be closed off"

"Well they only close it off to people because of the grimm, but after we saved Vale during the Breach I was able to make a convincing argument to let us have a picnic here"

"But there are still grimm here"

"I thought that would make it a little more exciting"

Ruby grinned at him and they headed into the forest.


	26. Chapter 26: An Equal Fight

When they entered the forest Chase noticed a surprising lack of grimm. -Aww, I was expecting more if this place was so restricted- Ruby had grabbed hold of his hand which she seemingly didn't even realise she had done. She began to lead him through the forest.-I forgot she was here earlier in the year- After a while of just walking through the forest Chase stopped, Ruby gave a tug but then realised why he had stopped.

All around them red circles were glowing in the dark areas. Chase smiled as he pulled out Gelida Furore in it's bow form, loading three arrows and firing them into the area where he could see the most eyes. His explosive shots went off causing some satisfying growls of pain, he could hear Ruby firing shots off on Crescent Rose. The beasts finally jumped out of hiding and Chase jumped up switching Gelida Furore to it's short swords and slicing a Beowulf in half, Ruby had charged in and was slicing through a group which had surrounded her. Chase focused on thinning the herds which were getting close so that Ruby didn't get overwhelmed. When Beowulves finally stopped appearing they walked a little farther and into an opening beside a cliff.

"A perfect place for a picnic"

"Speaking of which what sorts of food did you bring?"

"Well, since we had food in Beacon not too long ago I just brought something small" he said bringing out a medium sized box filled with cookies, Ruby's eyes lit up when she saw the label on the top.

"Aurora's bakery, that place is really expensive, how could you afford this"

"They gave me a big discount for having saved them during the breach" Chase lied, it had taken up most of the money he had earned from being a student to pay for them.

She immediately opened the box and started eating them at an incredible speed. Chase was going to tell her to slow down but about halfway through the box she stopped and motioned the box towards him.

"Did you want some?"

"No, I'm still full from earlier"

"You sure?" she said with a suspicious face

"Yes, it's fine I bought the box for you to eat, I just expected them to last longer"

She gave a laugh which made Chase smile "You underestimate my love for cookies"

"Obviously" he gave off a short laugh

Ruby finished the rest of the cookies within seconds and rested her head on Chase's shoulder. They sat in silence staring at the view from the cliff. Watching as the sun fell down over the horizon. Their silence was broke by the growl of an ursa. Chase and Ruby prepared their weapons as they heard it run towards them, each step causing trembles in the ground. When the monster finally emerged it looked more tough than the average grimm, it was taller and it's entire body was covered in the bone-like armour with spikes protruding from it's shoulders and back.

"I don't see any gaps in it's armour"

They both assessed the area while the beast gave off a loud roar, Ruby looked at the cliff and then grinned and looked to Chase. He realised what she had planned and nodded. The beast swung it's arm at Chase who ducked under it and fired an explosive arrow which caused the beast to sway towards the cliff before it regained its footing, after which the monster jumped up, slamming it's feet on the ground which caused Chase to fall backwards. The monster was following up with another swipe when Chase saw roses appear in front of him and the beast fell backwards, he jumped up and grabbed a gravity arrow, shooting it at the cliff edge so that the beast couldn't recover his footing. After it gave a struggle the monster finally fell off the cliff.

"Thanks, that thing was a step up from what we're used to."

"Maybe that was why we're not supposed to come here" Ruby said, hiding her anger at Chase

"Yeah… maybe this would be a good time to leave"

They got the airship back to Beacon and by the time they had got back everyone else was asleep so Chase walked Ruby to her room before finding a place to sleep for the night. The next morning he had a match early so he got his breakfast before everyone else woke up and headed to the arena to look up previous matched from his opponent.

From what he could tell his opponent was new to these tournaments as well, this one being only her second. Though in the last one she had done well enough to get to the quarter finals. She was equipped with a rifle which also acted as a double bladed sword, she was agile in the way she moved, though it seemed she used his semblance as Pyrrha did, meaning that he was unable to figure it out from the footage.

He could hear the speakers in the preparation room announce that the match was about to begin. Chase took his place at the door and walked through it into the arena where his opponent, Angeline Onyx was standing with her weapon behind her. The bell went off telling both of them the match had begun. Unlike his previous opponent she lunged at him immediately, attempting to stab him as she caught him off guard. Her blade just managed to slice him in the side as he tried to dodge. Chase was trying to bring out his short swords but she kept pressure on him, forcing him to dodge as she was aggressive with her moves. He shielded his arm and knocked her weapon aside as his icy arm grabbed one of his short swords and swung at her she bent backwards to avoid his blade but while she was flipping backwards kicked Chase. While she had knocked him near to the yellow Chase finally had a moment to breath and take out his weapons.

From then on he was able to block each of her attacks well and the fight became one of attrition, neither of them giving the other an opportunity to attack. -I need to think of someway to catch her off guard, if I want to use any dust then I'll need to gain some space however she's keen to stay close to me.- He lifted his foot and stood on hers, it was a dirty trick but it stopped her onslaught temporarily, he took out and energy crystal and made an outburst which gave him some distance. He then switched Gelida Furore to it's bow and shot an electric arrow to stun her for a few more precious moments. He switched it back to short swords and dashed in swinging his swords at her, suddenly his movements slowed and she was able to move her dual blades to parry him. -So she uses dust as well, this makes the fight a little more interesting- He went to dash backwards but noticed that his feet started to burn. He looked down to see fire sprouting from the ground. He narrowly avoided it but the damage the fire did to his feet knocked his aura further into the yellow while hers remained green.

He went straight for her, this time leaving her no time to react with dust as he forced her to block his attacks, he used some of the ice dust infused in him to create a spike of ice behind her the force pushed her closer to him and he used her momentum against her by focusing some aura into his sword and slicing her in the stomach which knocked her aura down to just above red.-Just as I thought, she doesn't have much aura so she can't last a long match- Her attacks became much slower and Chase was able to dodge them with ease, though he didn't play about for long and ended the match with a punch from his right arm. He reached out an arm to help her up, his hit had done more than he had intended and she was almost out of aura. He placed her arm around him and helped her to the medical team.

When he got back up to the seating area he could see Yang was disappointed and Blake and Ruby were comforting her.

"She get put out?"

"Yeah, Pyrrha was also put out, she wasn't able to do anything to Flash."

"Yeah, he had some pretty heavy armour. Only reason I could beat him was that I could keep track of him without the armour."

"As soon as he got rid of it Pyrrha didn't even get to move, she was knocked out on seconds. It was so close up to that point."

"Well, that's the whole of JNPR out and one of RWBY as well."

"What about the mercenaries. How have they been doing?"

Chase checked his scroll to see that Shu was the only one left, he and Cinder had made it past the qualifying match but Cinder was put out this match. Shu's match had only lasted 20 seconds.

"Shu's the only one left, if his last match has anything to say about it" he said showing them his scroll "He shouldn't have any problems"


	27. Chapter 27: The Hunt Begins

Over the last couple of days the tournament went on, they were down to the semi-finals and the remaining contestants were Chase, Blake, Shu and Flash. Chase would be facing off against Shu after Flash and Blake were done with their match. The semi-finals were set up like this so that the combatants could see who they might be facing the next round in battle. Chase was sitting in the audience which was a weird feeling for him. Up until know he had only ever been in the arena as they would have multiple fights go on at once. Blake had been keeping pressure on Flash who hadn't been able to even try to counter her. Though she had only knocked him down about halfway and the match had been going on for at least ten minutes. He knew in a battle of attrition Flash would win as he wasn't doing anything and since he was standing still he could eventually regain the missing aura.

After Blake backed away to catch her breath before trying to take him down the rest of the way Flash took off his heavy armour and smiled at Blake. At once he disappeared and reappeared beside Blake where he swiped at her with his sword, only to cause the shadow to dissipate and Blake to show up behind him and strike. She then flipped back and threw Gambol Shroud in gun form to attack him from a distance. He parried one of the attacks and ran towards Blake to close the distance, whenever she tried to switch it back to a katana Gambol Shroud jammed and Flash was able to land a finishing blow with his hammer.

"How did Gambol Shroud break, she did maintenance on it yesterday?" Ruby asked

"Well there's always the chance that he sabotaged it" Chase replied

"Unlikely, he goes to a lot of tournaments. If he cheated then people would've noticed by now" Pyrrha interjected

"Either way. If he's cheating it would be quite hard to mess with someone who uses dust as a weapon."

"It would if he changed your crystals with fakes or defective ones" Weiss said

"We'll just have to see, anyway, it's my turn to fight now."

Chase walked down to the preparation area and passed Blake on the way.

"Hey, what happened out there?"

"I don't know, I did maintenance yesterday. That shouldn't have happened"

"Do you think he messed with Gambol Shroud?"

"It's the only way something like that could happen"

"If I find that he cheated I'll beat him up extra hard in the finals"

"Assuming you get to the finals"

"Come one, I used to have 3v1 sparring matches with the mercenaries. This should be an easy win"

"I wouldn't get too cocky"

"I know, anyway I have to get ready for the match, see ya"

Chase checked the gauntlet he had made after his match with Onyx. It was fitted on his left arm and worked like a dust chamber on a standard weapon except he stored his arrows in it. This would mean he wasn't completely defenceless in the moments where his weapon weren't out as he had access to dust as well as the fact that he could shoot arrows much faster. As soon as he was done equipping it and checking Gelida Furore he walked to the entrance to the arena and waited for the doors to open before walking in.

He faced Shu and waited as the announcer gave a brief description of both, brief as he hadn't much information on either of them. After the bell went Shu waited patiently, Chase didn't need to analyse him as he had fought against Shu many times. He used his gauntlet to load three ice arrows into his bow and then aimed them at the ground, stopping any charges from Shu. He then walked slowly towards the edge of the ice.

"What are you waiting for?"

Chase remembered Shu's semblance but it was too late to back away. Shu appeared in front of him, causing a shockwave which caused Chase to stumble and the ice to crack. Shu wasted no time and quickly swept up with his greatsword, launching Chase into the air where Shu continued to hit him before smashing him into the ground. Chase finally got up and used an energy arrow to cause Shu to leave some distance between them. Giving Chase the chance to switch Gelida Furore to it's short swords and then he dashed towards Shu, closing the distance and then he began swinging with his short swords, Shu was able to block with his greatsword but didn't notice that Chase was drawing him towards the ice. The ice dust Chase had used in his arrows was his own so he was able to create an ice spike with is to knock Shu forwards into Chase. Chase kicked him into the air and used the ice dust to force a tower upwards below where Shu would land.

Both of them were in the red in terms of aura. -If I could teleport behind him then I could easily end this- **I wouldn't do that if I were you** -And why is that?- **Because you need that aura to keep in your inner monster, that aura is what keeps you human** -I should still have enough to make an illusion though, even if it won't last long-

He ran towards Shu and as Shu began to swing his greatsword Chase created an illusion that kept running to SHu while Chase slid under him and struck him from behind. Ending the match.

"I have to hand it to you, you've gotten a lot better than when we last fought"

"Thanks… win this for us though…. not sure that other guy…. would let us in" Shu said exhausted.

Luckily Chase had a couple of hours until his fight against Flash as he needed time to regain his lost aura. He ate as much as they allowed in the canteen with the others, he had been ignoring their conversations and focusing on eating everything he had until they brought up the topic of the mercenaries.

"So if Chase wins this round we'll be getting new people in the school." Ren said

"Yeah, lets just hope I can beat Flash again."

"Well if your weapon just happens to stop working then it would be an easy win for him" Blake said with a hint of aggression

"I'm guessing you think he messed with Gambol Shroud"

"Yeah, when I checked it there was something sticky at the hilt so when I transformed Gambol Shroud to gun form the blade got stuck to the hilt."

"So I have to be careful against him"

"Yeah, make sure he doesn't get near Gelida Furore."

"He'd have to break into my locker to get near it. Anyway I always have the dust inside me as a last resort"

"Though I'm not sure what the judges will think of that"

"A win is a win. But I'm going to need some rest before I fight again"

"You sleeping on one of the makeshift beds again?" Ruby asked

"Well yeah, I don't have anywhere else to sleep"

"We can't allow that, you're a finalist."

"Where else can I sleep?"

"For this time you can sleep in my bed"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I won't be using it until tonight anyway"

"Ok then, if I'm not awake in three hours someone come and get me"

"I'll do it" Yang said deviously

He left the canteen and went to team RWBY's dorm, climbing the bunk bed that Weiss and Ruby shared to get into Ruby's bed though it swayed as soon as he got in it Ruby's bed was a lot more comfortable than what he'd been sleeping in for the last couple of days. -A strong smell of roses… of course- **It would be real funny if you lost control in the next match** -Well for you, not for anyone else- **But think about it, if you went berserk and killed a bunch of strong people and died in the process God would be able to work a lot faster**. His fear started creating images of the people he cared about dying by his hand, him rampaging on the other Hunters and Huntresses. The mercenaries trying to restrain him but he just clawed his way out and then ripped through them. Team JNPR are holding him off while the civilians try to get away, but he makes short work of them as well. Weiss freezes his feet to the ground but he easily shatters the ice and rips her in half. Ruby tries to talk with him, tries to calm him and he hesitates but grabs her by the head and-

"NO!" he screamed, walking from his nightmare

He noticed something warm and looked down to see that Ruby had wrapped her arms around him and was asleep behind him, at least she must've been until he screamed waking her as well.

"Ruby what are you doing?"

She let go and looked at him worried.

"I came in to check on you and you were moving about the bed and I climbed up and heard you mumbling to yourself in fear so I was trying to calm you down and I fell asleep"

"It was just a nightmare, I'm fine now"

"What was that scream then"

"It's… I'm...I'm fine, I have to get going I have a match" Chase said jumping out of Ruby's bed and rushing towards the prep room. She tried to chase him but he created an illusion as soon as he left the door so she couldn't see him.

He was shaken up but he focused on getting his weapon out of his locker, after a few failed attempts to open the locker he finally calmed himself and typed in the passcode. After he got out Gelida Furore the door opened and he left into the arena. Flash was standing at the other side of the arena with a sly grin on his face. Chase didn't know what he did to his weapon but he was winning this match.

The bell rung and Chase loaded a fire arrow in and shot at Flash, causing an explosion on impact, Flash didn't try to dodge but used the smokescreen of the explosion to close the distance between him and Chase without Chase knowing. Chase went to switch Gelida Furore into short swords but there was it stuck and he couldn't pull the bow into two. Flash took the opportunity to hit Chase with his hammer, knocking him to the other side of the arena.

Chase's aura was almost depleted, Flash's hammer hit a lot harder than he had expected. Chase's eyes went red as his aura sense forced itself on and Chase's ice arm thickened as the hand turned into a claw. Chase's ice tail also forced itself out and Chase had almost lost control of himself. The little aura he had gave him control of his deformed self. Flash stood still, lifelessly staring at Chase's monster form. It took Chase a couple moments to realise why, there was an aura behind him, it was an odd aura and Chase used some of his remaining energy to regain sight in one eye. A red blade was protruding from Flash and then the top half of Flash's body fell forward giving Chase a clear sight on who it was behind Flash. Standing behind Flash's corpse was a brown and red headed bull faunus with a grimm mask, though it was the katana which struck more fear into Chase. As far as he could tell it was made of the exact same material as God's sword and the katana of the girl he fought in the train.

Chase's anger took control as he jumped at the faunus, attempting to crush him with his claw. The bull faunus simply cut through Chase's arm. Chase, however didn't relent and charged him again, this time trying to stab him with his tail, though it got cut off as well. The bull faunus spat on Chase before swiping his sword to make a portal to leave. Chase went unconscious.

When he woke up in the hospital he wasn't met by team RWBY, JNPR or any of the mercenaries. Ozpin was standing at the end of the bed with Ironwood sitting to his left.

"We've run out of time, what's your decision?" Ironwood spoke up

"I'll do it."

"Since, you have made friends here at Beacon I am allowing you to speak to one person before you depart, however you may not tell them the details of your mission" Ozpin said

Chase considered who to speak to before he left. Ruby was the most obvious option but he didn't know how well he could hold up without telling her, after that the decision was clear.

"I'd like to speak to Yang Xiao Long"

Ozpin typed something on his scroll and then left the room along with Ironwood. After a couple of minutes Yang walked through the door.

"What is it you wanted? Ozpin said it was urgent"

"Yang, remember that bet I won?"

"If this is to tell me to do something stupid-"

"It's not!" Chase interrupted " I want you to take care of Ruby, and there is a something that I'm going to tell you that you can't tell her, no matter what. I just want you to keep this one secret"

"What is it?"

"I'm still alive"

"That sound pretty stupid"

"Trust me it'll make sense tomorrow"

"Is that it?"

"Yeah, tell Ozpin and Ironwood they can come back in"

Yang left and shortly after they both came back in, looking at him suspiciously.

"I didn't tell her about the mission…. I'm assuming you will have to make it look like I died"

"Yes, unfortunately you're going to have to leave through the forest behind Beacon, go to the edge and you'll get the information of this mission."

"Alright"

Chase created an illusion of himself outside the school wall and switched placed, heading through the forest.

**Ruby's POV**

"Why are you sending him on a mission already, he's just out of hospital?"

"He said he needed a break, it's not a mission but after what happened in the Vytal tournament he was given an escort" Ozpin replied

-I didn't even get to see him in the hospital, maybe I can say goodbye to him before he gets on the Bullhead- Ruby used her semblance to get to the dock as soon as she could but the Bullhead had already taken off, she walked back to Beacon sadly but then heard an explosion, she looked around and saw the Bullhead Chase was on fall into the sea. All Ruby could do was watch, her friends rushed to the scene after hearing the explosion. Everyone looked shocked as they saw the dropship fall under the ocean, they didn't see anyone jump out.

**A/N: So this story will be going on hiatus for a little while and I decided to end the story here. The reason for the hiatus is that I have a lot of tests coming up soon. Even so I am thinking about doing a miniseries where I make a Vytal Tournament for OCs, let me know what you think**


End file.
